Vocal Blues
by KicsterAsh
Summary: The High School Christmas Banquet is a week away, and Phineas and mysteriously lost his voice. What's worse, Perry is having difficulties with Dr. Doofenshmirtz. Could this all have something to do with the invention Ferb designed?
1. Chapter 1

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE:_**_ So here's the third of my PnF stories: Vocal Blues. You can see my cover art, colored by mah partner in crime, Clau 3 I'm sorry again that I won't be posting details on each chapter here, but it's difficult to post these stories on two sites. Just putting a heads up that everything I place in this story, if you don't agree with it, don't read it. That simple._

_Anyway, on with the show!_

_

* * *

_

_"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow…"_

Ferb awoke that December morning to the radio singing Christmas carols. Like every year, the radio stations would play Christmas carol after Christmas carol all through the month until the twenty-fifth. Although it was still dark outside, the merry music made it feel as though the sun was already up and shining.

Slapping his hand down on top of the radio and silencing it, the green-haired sixteen-year old yawned loudly and stretched out his arms and legs. After relaxing for a few seconds, he finally sat up in bed while passing a hand through his messy hair.

_Morning_, he thought to himself as he leaned over towards the wall to read the calendar. _December 7th. Hm_. Ferb smiled; Phineas' sixteenth birthday had just passed by a mere two days ago, and he could still remember all the exciting things they had done with their friends. Being his _Sweet Sixteen_, as he called it, Phineas was allowed to do whatever it was he wanted. Isabella, Baljeet, Buford and even Ferb's girlfriend, Vanessa, had gotten together with the Flynn-Fletcher brothers and started celebrating the youngest member's birthday with a snowball fight, snowman building contest—and when Phineas and Ferb are involved, it's an _extreme_ snowman building contest, complete with robot snowmen—they built a fort, went sledding, played street hockey and then jammed in the Flynn-Fletcher basement before going up to eat cake and watch Phineas open his gifts. These included things like artist materials, parts for inventions, music CDs and his favourite, the finished snow bike he and Ferb had designed together—which was basically just adding skis and winter-related gear to their bycicles. Ferb had taken the liberty of putting on the finishing touches and making a duplicate of it for himself.

The jamming bit was more of a regular practice, though; the gang's band, _Phineas and the Ferbtones_, were part of the musical line-up for that year's high school Christmas Banquet. The date was but a little over a week away, and so far, they would be playing at least twelve songs, unless the students wanted to hear more.

Since that Monday was a school holiday, Ferb expected to be doing something exciting with Phineas again; just as they always did.

Funny, though; by now, he would have heard his brother shout out his daily catchphrase: "Hey Ferb! I know what we're gonna do today!" That had been the one line that Ferb had followed by for the past five years. And although it became repetitive at certain points, it meant that a new adventure was about to begin.

But… he had not heard it yet. Normally, Phineas would announce it just as soon as his brother woke up… But all Ferb heard was silence.

Scratching his head, Ferb turned to his right and stared at where his brother normally slept on his raft-like bed.

There was Phineas, sitting on his bed in his orange pyjamas. Sleeping on his lap was Perry, the family's pet platypus. The red-haired teenager gently stroked the animal's fur while returning Ferb's stare.

_Silently._

Ferb scratched his head again and then grinned. "Good morning," he said, figuring that it would be best that he spoke this time round.

Phineas grinned in reply and nodded in response.

_Huh?_ Ferb raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Um, what are we going to do today?" he wondered.

Phineas sat up straight and then looked at the sketchbook that was sitting next to him. Picking it up and flipping to the right page, he held it up towards Ferb and pointed at a sketch.

Ferb frowned in confusion. Not because he did not understand what the gizmo was, no—he, above everyone else, _always_ knew what Phineas' ideas were. What was confusing him was the fact that Phineas was not ranting on about what they were supposed to be doing. It was something Ferb had always expected from him. Even though Phineas could be quite the chatterbox, his explanations were always thorough, and that helped Ferb properly build their creations.

But Phineas was not spilling a single syllable.

Ferb looked up at him. "Mind telling me what it is?" he wondered.

At these words, Ferb thought he had noticed a glint of concern fill his brother's ultramarine blue eyes. But Phineas quickly looked away to keep him from being certain.

Ferb looked on silently and was just about to ask what the matter was when there came a knock on the bedroom door. Both teenagers looked up simultaneously.

"Ferb? Are you up, Lad?" their father's voice wondered. The door opened and in peered Lawrence Fletcher's head. He peered over his glasses at his biological son and smiled. "Ah! So you _are_ awake, then," he said. "Good; I was beginning to think you would forget."

"Forget?" Ferb echoed.

"Yes; you said you would help me move the antique shipment and help me put them all in order at the store this morning, remember?"

Ferb raised his eyebrows in revelation and stuck his feet out from beneath the covers.

"Considering you and Phineas normally do things on no-school days, I thought it would only be fair if I have you work with me for only the morning," his father continued as Ferb made his bed. Leaving the room, Lawrence added, "Your mother has breakfast ready for you. Considering you're up as well, Phineas, might as well come and join Ferb for a bite to eat."

Phineas watched him leave and then nodded his head. Ignoring Ferb's still confused stare, he pulled out a comic book Buford gave him for his birthday and began to read it.

Ferb watched him in complete perplexity before gathering his clothes and going to get changed.

* * *

"Father, have you noticed anything odd about Phineas this morning?"

Lawrence looked up from studying one of the boxes they had to carry back to the car. He and his son had to stop at the back of the postal office in order to gather the giant shipment of antiques that had just flown in. The two of them carried them out one by one, mostly in silence, or until Ferb had decided to question Phineas' odd behaviour.

His father cocked his head. "Odd as in _how_?" he asked with a playful grin. "If I do recall correctly, Phineas has his own set of guidelines that are much… _odder_ than real life, as your sister would put it."

Ferb followed him back into the postal office. "Well, I mean odd as in the way he's acting," he explained. "Like, say… he's not speaking."

At these words, Lawrence stopped in his tracks. Ferb nearly ran into him and quickly backed up as his father turned to face him.

Lawrence stared at him in bewilderment. "Not _speaking_?" he said in confusion. "Phineas is not… _speaking_? Since when has that ever happened?"

"That's what I'm wondering," Ferb replied. "He didn't even tell me what we were going to do today. All he did was…" Ferb spread out his arms. "… _Showed_ me the sketchbook! He never spoke _once!"_

"Is he perhaps upset at you about something?"

"We never argue, Father. At least, not to _that_ point. We have our disagreements, but not to the point of not speaking to each other."

"Maybe he's upset with someone else?"

Ferb smiled wryly. "Phineas never holds a grudge, Father," he reminded him.

Lawrence laughed before turning and continuing on towards the last of the delivery. "True, that's one thing I like about him," he said. "Too busy trying to make people happy to stay angry. I don't even think I've ever heard him yell at Candace, despite how much she nagged you two…"

Ferb smiled secretly at this; he had heard Phineas yell at Candace but once, and that was in order for her to suck up her pride and ride a tricycle. He could not stop teasing Phineas about it afterwards, mainly because his brother never yelled at anyone. The memory always made Phineas blush and feel ashamed, so he often tried finding ways to change subjects.

"I'm not sure, Ferb," Lawrence said with a sigh as he and his son crouched down and lifted up a box together. "That's the only reason I can possibly think of; that or maybe he's ill. But he didn't _look_ sick when I came upstairs."

"He's hiding something, that much I know," Ferb suspected. "When I asked him to explain what we were supposed to be doing, he only looked away and said nothing. I have _never_ gone a single day without hearing him say _something_. It's making me a bit anxious."

"Anxious?" Lawrence laughed as they carried the box out. "Ferb, I'm quite sure Phineas is perfectly fine."

"Maybe… But we're also performing this Saturday night at the banquet."

"Son, Phineas probably hasn't lost his _voice_. He's probably in a bit of a funk about something. Maybe he misplaced one of his gifts he got over the weekend. You know how he gets when he loses things. He shuts out the world around him until he's found what he needs."

"But he doesn't shut _me_ out," Ferb complained. "I'm normally the one he asks to help search for whatever's he's misplaced."

Lawrence sighed as they set the box down in the back of the vehicle. "Let it be for now, Ferb," he said. "Phineas has his bad days, just as you, Candace, your mother and I have. Give him time and he'll probably start chattering again about some crazy contraption you two should build…" He chuckled at this before wiping his hands on his pants. "I get all frivolous whenever you two are inventing something. It's nice to see so much creativity… Speaking of which, how's that latest of yours coming along? The one you said you designed, hm?"

Ferb rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, it's in the vault downstairs," he replied. "I can build things, yes; but when it comes to designing and inventing completely from scratch, I just can't do it. Phineas has that gift, not I."

"So it doesn't work?"

"I'm not sure, actually… I just deemed it dangerous. I tested it out here and there, but not enough to make anymore than assumptions."

"What was it supposed to do again?"

Ferb shrugged. "Vocal Box," he replied. "It's just supposed to change the pitch or sound of one's voice, like helium makes you sound like a chipmunk. Or give you the voice of an animal or something. Only, it doesn't kill brain cells."

Lawrence laughed at this for a moment before wiping his eyes. "And you don't want to test it out?" he asked afterwards.

His son looked on uneasily. "Father, I can't test it on anyone," he said. "What if it does more harm than good? What if it permanently damages your vocal chords? Like I said earlier; when it comes to designing inventions with a purpose, Phineas is the one for the job. I just build and improve. I can't start from scratch."

"Then perhaps that's something you can do with him today," Lawrence suggested with a smile. "Maybe that will get him chattering again."

Ferb grinned at this, but only out of politeness. He still thought of the Vocal Box as a dangerous creation, and the very last person he wanted to get their hands on it was his little brother.

Knowing Phineas, anything could happen.


	2. Chapter 2

Lawrence dropped Ferb off at home when he came around for lunch; then he returned to the store to finish off his work with a friend of his. Linda wanted to get some housework done before her daughter came to visit them the following evening.

Phineas was busy playing videogames when Ferb entered the room. Perry was now nowhere in sight, suggesting that he had been called on another mission. After watching his brother beat another level on the giant computer screen, Ferb pulled out a book to read from his bookshelf. Phineas eventually finished playing and went to doodling in his sketchbook.

Lunch had hardly passed when Linda called to the boys from the floor below. "Phineas!" she cried out. "It's your turn to do the dishwasher! Could you come do it please?"

Phineas looked up from his sketchbook when his mother called for him; but he did not reply.

Again.

Ferb looked at him from the corner of his eye. "Uh, aren't you going to answer her, Phin?" he asked.

Phineas looked at him quickly before immediately getting back to drawing in his sketchbook. His movements became incredibly nervous as concern filled his eyes.

Ferb noticed it. He put his book down. "Phineas, Mum just asked you to do the dishes," he repeated. It was alarming that Phineas would not reply; he never disobeyed his mother. Even when it was his turn to do the dishes.

Phineas did not look up. He only continued to sketch.

"Phineas Fly-ynn!" Linda chanted, impatience beginning to show in her voice. "Are you going to come and do the dishes for me?"

Phineas seemed to cower at the sound of her voice. His shoulders rose and his head lowered, almost as if he was attempting to hide a blush.

Ferb continued to stare at him until Linda called out a third time: "PHINEAS!" she shouted.

With a groan, Ferb sat up straight. "He'll be down in a minute, Mother!" he called back. "He's a little tied up at the moment!"

"If he's in the middle of another invention, tell him to set it down for ten minutes!" Linda replied.

Ferb waited to make sure that she was not going to speak again before frowning at his little brother. "Phineas, what's gotten into you?" he asked, finally catching Phineas' attention. "You haven't spoken a single word since I woke up! You haven't even told me what we're supposed to be _doing_ today!" Hands on his hips, he added, "Are you hiding something?"

Phineas stared at him in silence before finally sighing. Looking down at his sketchbook, he wrote a message down on it and then tore out the paper. Once he had, he stretched out his arm between the two beds and held the note out for Ferb to grab.

Curiously, Ferb did so and held the note up to his eyes before reading it:

_I can't speak. _

Although it was short, Ferb reread it twice. And then a third time. And then a fourth. But still, he could not understand it. Finding no actual point to it, he decided that Phineas was playing games, like he always did when wanting to spark up a bit of a giggle between them. Ferb cracked a grin and chuckled softly before raising an eyebrow and looking at his brother again. "You can't speak, huh?" he said sarcastically. Setting the note down, he added, "That's a good one, Phineas. You almost had me for a minute."

But Phineas did not smile. To Ferb's surprise, the red-head frowned worriedly. Giving his stepbrother only a split second to react, Phineas stubbornly wrote down on his sketchbook again and tore the page out. Swinging his arm over rapidly, he handed it to Ferb again, who took it and read it.

_I'm serious, Ferb. I CAN'T SPEAK. _

This time, Ferb was utterly confused. Frowning in puzzlement, he looked at Phineas again and held up the note. "What exactly are you talking about?" he asked. He was becoming more and more uncomfortable with this situation. It hardly, if _ever_, happened that he needed to speak this often. Normally, Phineas was the talker. "If this is some kind of joke, Phineas, you need to stop it," Ferb added. "It's beginning to worry me."

Phineas slapped his forehead and bared his teeth—Ferb expected him to groan in frustration as well, but he made not a sound. Exasperatingly, Phineas wrote down _again_ in his sketchbook; this time, however, he only held up the entire book for Ferb to see:

_I DON'T HAVE A VOICE ANYMORE! _

Ferb stared at the paper in complete shock, trying to imagine Phineas actually _yelling_ the words. Suddenly, this seemed serious. He looked up at his stepbrother with growing concern in his eyes. "You… you're actually serious?" he said.

Phineas nodded.

"You don't have a voice?"

Again, Phineas nodded.

Ferb rubbed his chin thoughtfully while reading the note again before looking at his brother again. Phineas' frown had now been replaced with an incredibly worried expression—almost as though he was afraid of what could happen… and afraid of what his brother would say about the reason.

The reason for his voice having suddenly disappeared.

Ferb noticed the message in Phineas' eyes. Since he normally was the silent one, Phineas and Ferb had learned how to read each other's eyes. Ferb frowned softly in concern. "What did you do?" he asked deeply.

At these words, Phineas looked away and began to nervously play with his fingers. He bit his lower lip and then tugged at his ear, like he normally did when attempting—and often failing— to tell a lie.

Ferb leaned towards him. "Phineas, if you've _really_ lost your voice, you need to tell me how it happened," he said sternly. "How did you lose your voice?"

Phineas looked up at him. For a moment, he was immobile; but then he raised his right hand and began to quickly sketch something down in his book.

Ferb waited as patiently as he could. Once Phineas had completed the drawing, he held it out slowly so that his brother could take it. Ferb held the sketchbook up to his eyes and studied the drawing. It looked like another invention idea, but the shape was oddly familiar. It resembled a box with buttons and a giant dial on it. At one end, there was a horn-shaped device, like the ones on old record players, with a little speaker inside of it.

It seemed too plain to be a creation of Phineas'. So that left only one other person.

Ferb's eyes filled with revelation and then pure horror. Gaping in shock, he raised his head and stared at his brother. "You… you _used_ the Vocal Box?" he asked.

Phineas bowed his head shamefully but kept his eyes on Ferb. Meekly, he nodded.

Ferb's eyes widened this time in dismay. "Phineas!" he moaned, making his brother cower. "Why would you do that?" He slapped the sketchbook. "I told you specifically _not_ to touch it because it was deemed _dangerous_! Why did you go into our blueprint vault and goof off again?"

Phineas was looking more and more ashamed of his actions, almost to the point that Ferb's scolding was going to make his eyes fill with tears. Luckily, though, Ferb ceased shouting before it had reached that far—he did not want to cause his brother to cry just as much as he hated yelling at him. With an exasperated sigh, Ferb passed a hand over his face. "I didn't want you to touch it because I was worried something like _this_ would happen," he groaned. "Why do you _always_ have to go back and play with things when you _know_ you shouldn't?"

Phineas played with his fingers nervously before looking up at Ferb again. Taking back his sketchbook, he wrote down another message and handed it back. Then, he crossed his arms as though hugging himself and stared guiltily at his lap.

Ferb observed him for a moment before looking at the note.

_I wanted to see if I could fix it for you. It's not often that you invent something alone. _

Leave it up to Phineas to melt your heart. Ferb sighed again and set the sketchbook aside before getting off of his bed and sitting down next to Phineas on his brother's. Phineas scooted over and gave him room.

"You're too good for your own good sometimes, you know that?" Ferb said with a weak grin. After watching Phineas grin back, he looked at his hands and took a deep breath. "I suppose I should go get it and bring it back up," he said. "We're going to have to focus on finding a way to return your voice before Saturday night. I'm not even sure if the results are permanent or not."

Phineas stared at him in complete horror. Ferb stared back at him and could not help but to laugh. If one thing horrified Phineas, it was not being able to speak ever again. "Don't worry; knowing our luck, it'll probably be repairable," the green-haired sixteen-year-old replied. He leaned towards his bed and grabbed Phineas' sketchbook. Handing it to his brother, he added, "Might as well not invent anything until we've solved this problem, Phin. It would be best not to in case it only makes our situation worse."

Phineas had opened his book while his brother spoke and stared at the invention he had designed that morning. After poking his chin with the eraser of his pencil, he looked up at his brother and rested the tip of his piece of lead gently against the page. With childlike wonder in his eyes, he gently poked the paper.

Ferb watched him do so before grinning amusingly. "Yes, we can undoubtedly do it next time," he replied. He felt relieved that he could read his brother's eyes so well, although having to be the one who spoke still seemed incredibly odd and uncomfortable.

Phineas turned a page and quickly began writing something down. Once finished, he held the sketchbook before Ferb.

_I know what we're gonna do today_, his note read.

Ferb looked at him silently for a moment. "And what's that?" he wondered.

Phineas took the book back and wrote another message down. Once through, he held it up next to his face while smiling foolishly.

_Figure out what I screwed up this time and fix it before you get too used to talking. _

At this, Ferb found it difficult to keep a straight face. He leaned back a little while smiling wryly. "Your screw ups, I can live with," he replied. "Though I wouldn't mind the silence for a while."

Phineas narrowed his eyes at this and swatted Ferb across the shoulder with his sketchbook, although all his stepbrother did was laugh.


	3. Chapter 3

Linda called up to her boys again, once fifteen minutes had passed and Phineas had not yet come down to do the dishes. This time, however, both teenagers came running down the stairs upon her calling. Considering it had been the first time her youngest son had not obediently come down the first try, Linda decided against scolding him and immediately set him to the task.

Ferb was asked to sweep the floor in the meantime.

"Isabella called while you boys were busy doing whatever it is you do up there," Linda announced as she cleaned the counters. "She wanted to speak to you, Phineas, but I told her that you had your hands caught up. Apparently, your cellphone was off…"

Ferb raised his head and looked at Phineas. Because of his friendship with Isabella, Phineas hardly ever turned his cell phone off. He always had it on, keeping himself available to her whenever she needed someone to speak to. Even though Phineas was still completely oblivious to the fact that Isabella had a crush on him, he constantly remained as her closest companion.

The only reason Ferb could think of for Phineas to turn his phone off was because his brother was aware that his voice had been muted and that it would be practically impossible to communicate with Isabella unless texting.

Linda looked up at her youngest son. "Um, did you hear me, Dear?" she said, causing bother teenagers to look up. "Isabella may call you back."

Phineas blinked and nodded his head before continuing working on the dishwasher. Linda cocked her head curiously. "Are you feeling okay, Phineas?" she wondered, catching his attention again. "You've been awfully quiet this morning. Is something on your mind?"

Phineas bit his lip nervously and looked at Ferb for help. This one, of course, had already guessed it to happen, and so already had a reasonable answer: "Um, Phineas has a bit of a sore throat, Mother," Ferb replied, catching Linda's attention. "It may be because he's been singing a lot for the banquet this coming Saturday."

Linda raised her eyebrows in shock before looking at Phineas again. "Should we take you to the doctor to get it checked out?" she asked.

Phineas shook his head quickly at this—almost too desperately.

"It's only a virus," Ferb added. "I already checked this morning. That and he uh… wants to keep quiet in order to keep his vocals… in…tact." _Boy if she doesn't believe that, I won't be surprised,_ Ferb thought._ That was a REALLY poor lie on my part._

"Ah." Linda shrugged the matter aside, obviously falling for the fib, and raised Phineas' chin while smiling. "But don't stay quiet too long, Sweetie; you know how much I love the way you rant about inventing things." She kissed his nose and then continued her work.

Phineas' cheeks turned pink as he grinned innocently at his mother. Ferb, however, choked on a giggle, resulting in having Phineas blush even more.

The chores were done mostly in silence—although it was normal that Ferb did them without speaking, it still felt strange that Phineas was unable to communicate either. Ferb also noticed that Phineas had trouble getting used to this fact as well. Several times, the red-head turned and opened his mouth to say something, but then he would stop, make a disappointed grimace, and continue his work.

_He's obviously too used to talking all the time_, Ferb thought amusingly.

Linda had to run to the grocery store once the kitchen had been cleaned. Leaving the boys to do what they pleased for the time, she grabbed her coat and purse and left the house.

Ferb then grabbed Phineas by the hand and pulled him into the basement.

The Blueprint Vault was the spare closet in which Phineas and Ferb stored all of the plans for every single one of their inventions. They had asked their parents at the ages of twelve and thirteen if they could build a special door for it that no one could break into without the right combination or key. It was the first time Linda had witnessed something as complex as a steel door and walls being built by her preteen sons.

The Vault had been the only place where the boys could put their blueprints of past inventions and remember what they looked like. Everything from the Roller Coaster to the Flying Star Phineas had designed for Ferb; everything from the past five years was in this room. And only Phineas and Ferb had the correct combination to enter the Vault—Phineas kept the key in his Tinker Box, which was securely tucked away in his room. The Vault had become an incredibly important addition to the house for them.

It was the only proof they had left of most of their inventions, since they all magically disappeared or got destroyed.

Arriving at the Vault, Ferb punched in the combination and unlocked the second lock with his brother's key. "Okay, you need to tell me—no, make that show me—exactly what you did to lose your voice, Phineas," the green-haired sixteen-year-old said as he opened the door. "I'm not certain how long it will take me to figure out what the solution will be, but hopefully it won't be too complex."

He entered the room with Phineas and clapped his hands—the lights within the vault were supposed to correspond to clapping, or so Phineas had told him they did.

But the lights did not turn on. Ferb tried a second and third time until he realized that Phineas had added his own special touch to the lights—according to Phineas, every inventor always added a little personal touch to their creations, something that only they could decipher. His biological father, Francis Flynn, had called it an inventor's signature.

Ferb rolled his eyes and shot a sly smile at his brother. Phineas was already grinning amusingly.

"What did you add to them _this_ time?" Ferb asked.

Phineas smiled innocently and pretended to clap his hands. Then, he held up his right hand and placed the fingers together like a mouth, opening and closing again.

"You have to _speak_," Ferb said with a sigh.

His brother bared his teeth.

Ferb raised an eyebrow and pointed at Phineas. "You clap, I'll order," he said. Phineas held up his hands and clapped twice. "Lights on!" Ferb called out.

And the soft lights were immediately turned on, illuminating the closet.

"You only added that because you want to hear me _speak_ more, didn't you?" Ferb guessed.

Phineas shrugged with a smile.

"Remind me to duct tape your yapper shut once we get your voice back."

This time, Phineas covered his mouth and seemed to silently giggle behind it. Once Ferb had been able to contain his amusement and return to the matter at hand, the sixteen-year-old turned and reached up onto a shelf where he had last set the Vocal Box down. Phineas had undoubtedly returned it to its rightful place after fiddling with it, for it was still sitting there when Ferb pulled it down.

"Alright, now show me what you did," Ferb asked with a sigh, holding the box up to his brother.

Phineas walked up to it and made a gesture of holding up a tool. Placing one hand on the side of the machine, he pretended to unscrew something with his imaginary screwdriver.

"You actually opened it?" Ferb guessed. "Hopefully, you were reading the blueprint I made for it, right?"

Phineas nodded and then continued to mime out what he had done. After taking a look at the insides of the machine, he had replaced the top on and began playing with the combinations Ferb had been able to create to change people's voices. The first one Phineas had pressed was to make your voice three pitches higher. The second was to make it six pitches lower. The third raised it back to normal.

Ferb watched as Phineas pretended to punch in different numbers in different sequences. He had already memorized every single combination he had come up with, as well as wrote them down in a little book upstairs—there were over a hundred of them—and so far, he recognized every single one his brother had punched. Every time he did two different ones, Phineas would return his voice to normal. And every time he punched in a code, Phineas made a writing gesture that could only mean that he had been taking notes.

_It was obviously working properly, then_, Ferb thought. _Phineas always takes notes like that if he's rechecking an invention. It helps him remember what works and what doesn't. But from what he's showing me, everything seems to be working on the Vocal Box. So if Phineas can properly play with it without any accident, then how is it that his voice just disappeared?_

Phineas was nearing the twentieth or so combination when Ferb suddenly noticed him press something that did not seem familiar. It included several numbers, but also turning the red knob six digits to the left. He concluded the combination by touching the button on the side of the machine and then pretending to speak into the horn.

Alarms went off in Ferb's brain. He held up a hand. "Stop!" he ordered, making Phineas look up at him. "Redo that combination, please."

Phineas blinked and then redid the combination. Once he was through, he looked up at Ferb.

Ferb pointed at him. "Was it after this one that you noticed your voice had vanished?" he asked, slightly nervous.

Phineas seemed to think for a moment. Then he nodded.

"What happened?" Ferb asked sternly.

Phineas grabbed the horn and mouthed inaudible words before grabbing his throat and sticking his tongue out. Then he wiggled his fingers and moved them towards the horn before frantically pretending to punch in several buttons at once. He let his hands drop here before looking at Ferb worriedly.

Ferb rubbed his chin. "So what I understand is that you spoke into the horn and then your voice seemed to be getting… sucked out?" he said.

Phineas shrugged in reply.

"Or… is it more like… it sounded like it was becoming more and more distant or gradually getting softer without your doing?"

This time, Phineas nodded.

"So you tried punching in other combinations, but it didn't work…"

His brother nodded again.

"… So you gave up and just… put it back?"

A third nod.

Ferb stared at the machine worriedly. "That's a new combination for me," he said. "I've never used it… This just made it a lot more difficult to decipher. I can't use it on myself or else it'll just make things worse. I'll have to refer to you for results—!"

At these words, Phineas recoiled in shock and then glared at his brother. He shook his head vigorously from side to side.

Ferb watched him do so in silence before rolling his eyes. "Phineas, _you're_ the one who toyed with it, so _you're_ the one I need to work on," he argued.

Phineas crossed his arms and frowned harder.

"I'm not using you as a lab rat!" Ferb exclaimed. "But the results will vary if I use it on other people!" He pointed at his brother. "_You're_ the one who got yourself into this mess, so you'll just have to deal with it for now!"

Phineas continued to frown a little longer before looking down at his feet and sighing tiredly. Ferb knew that he was obviously incredibly anxious about being the subject of Ferb's research, but what else could he do? It was Phineas' voice that Ferb had to find; not someone else's.

Ferb passed a hand through his hair before sighing. "Phineas," he began.

He was suddenly cut short by a ringing in his pant pocket. Jumping at the vibration at first, he looked down and stared at his pocket, just as Phineas did the same. Unlike Phineas' phone, Ferb had only one three ringtones: one for his girlfriend, one for his brother, and one for everyone else.

This one belonged to his girlfriend.

Phineas made a grimace and rolled his eyes amusingly. Ferb smiled back at him as he pulled out his phone. "Suck it up, Romeo," he replied while pressing the talk button. "Hello?"

_"Hi, Ferb, you busy right now?"_

Ferb looked at Phineas for a moment before looking at the Vocal Box in his hands. "Um, define busy," he said.

Vanessa laughed. "_Busy as in 'I need to get away from my dad right now,'"_ she replied.

"Oh." Ferb looked at Phineas again. "Um, well, I am in the middle of something, unfortunately, Vanessa."

The twenty-one-year-old at the other end sighed. "_Okay, just checking,_" she began.

"—But I may need your help," Ferb interrupted.

Vanessa was quiet for a moment. _"Help with what?_" she wondered.

Ferb looked at Phineas a third time. The red-head stared back at him curiously.

"Um, your father builds machines… right?" Ferb asked.


	4. Chapter 4

Phineas would have objected highly about it if he could verbalize. But because he could not, all he could do was grab onto whatever he could as Ferb attempted to drag him out of the door. After getting off of the phone with Vanessa, Ferb had told Phineas to put on his hoodie and jacket. Only after Phineas had gotten completely dressed did Ferb tell him what they were doing and where they were going.

And for the first time, Phineas was _not_ agreeing with him.

Ferb groaned as he pulled on his brother's arm, fighting to lead him to the front door. Phineas was pulling himself in the opposite direction. "Come _on_, Phineas, we don't have time to play around!" he said. "Vanessa will be here to pick us up in a few minutes!"

Phineas shook his head violently and slapped his gloved hand down on top of Ferb's. Ferb let go of his brother's arm, but Phineas only had but a split second to escape before Ferb had grabbed him around the waist. "Do you know any other man who builds things on a daily basis?" Ferb scolded. "We _need_ to go see Dr. Doofenzhmirtz!"

Phineas objected again and tried prying his brother's hands off of him.

"It's not like we're going to attempt to help him build something again," Ferb groaned after finally reaching the door. "_Or_ fly through to another dimension again. We might even see Perry there!"

Phineas stomped his foot against the floor and pulled out the sketchbook Ferb had told him to bring along. But instead of writing something down on it and passing the note to his brother, Phineas raised it over his head and slapped it down violently over Ferb's.

"Ow! Knock it off!" Ferb snapped.

But Phineas only slapped him a second time.

"Look, if he attempts to use you as a guinea pig, then I'll drag you out and you can—ow!—You can slap me all you want when we get home," Ferb replied as he opened the door. "I just need to hear what he has to say about this."

Phineas pulled out a sharpie marker and wrote down in his book. This time, he held it up so that Ferb could see it.

_He's a madman, not a scientist! _

"He's _also_ an inventor," Ferb pointed out.

Phineas held up his sketchbook again. _A __failed__ inventor! Perry said so himself! _

"Phineas, do you _want_ your voice back or not?"

_Must I answer truthfully? _

Ferb smiled amusingly at this. "You suck at lying, remember?" he pointed out.

Phineas put down his arms at this and sighed in exasperation before looking at Ferb over his shoulder.

"Vanessa promised me that she wouldn't let him harm you," Ferb reassured him. "And if it makes you feel better, we'll be meeting him at Vanessa's house, not his lab. That way, he can't do anything to either of us."

Phineas wrote down in his sketchbook again. He held the note up. _What good will he know? All of his things get destroyed, remember? _

"True, but he always knows what the problem was," Ferb replied. "Just because he's a failure and he doesn't go back to fix mistakes, it doesn't mean he hasn't found solutions. Vanessa's seen his books."

Phineas wrote another note. _Perry says he's evil_, he pointed out.

"And _you_ always say to give everyone a second chance."

Phineas glared at him while smiling. Ferb smiled back and let him go. "You have my word," he said. "Nothing will go wrong. I promise."

Phineas looked at him before staring at his notebook again. When a black car pulled into the driveway and honked, Ferb looked over his shoulder for a moment. He looked at his brother again.

Phineas tightened his lips together before sighing and nodding in reply. When Ferb held out his arm to point the way, Phineas walked by.

Vanessa rolled down the window when the boys walked up to the car. "Hit a bit of a snag, Ferb," she said. "Dad can't come over to talk. He was in the middle of another big thing when Perry burst in. I took that chance to sneak off to come over like you said."

Ferb's shoulders dropped as Phineas wrote another note down. Tapping his brother's shoulder, Phineas held up his book for him to see and raised an eyebrow.

_Inator-failure_, his note mocked. _And future father-in-law. Go Ferb. Woot, woot. _

Ferb knew he was only trying to be funny now, so he grinned slyly in reply and playfully pushed the red-head aside. Vanessa watched him to do before looking at Ferb once more. "So, he really can't speak?" she said in shock.

Ferb shook his head.

"Must be quiet in the house, then."

At these words, Phineas turned his head and frowned at Vanessa while placing his hands on his hips. Vanessa grinned in reply and shrugged. "I'm just kidding, Phineas," she replied. She looked at Ferb again. "Anyway, since he can't come, I told him to give a video feed as soon as Perry was through defeating him. You have a computer system, right, Ferb?"

Ferb nodded in reply.

"Then we might as well just set it all up here."


	5. Chapter 5

After offering Vanessa something to drink, Ferb led them upstairs into his and Phineas' room. Phineas got the entire computer system set up as quickly as he could before handing it over to his brother; the system had been another one of Phineas' ideas, although Ferb had organized it in a manner which would not stimulate any suspicions from their parents. Normally, Phineas was the one who spoke to the computer when it gave results, but because he was unable to communicate, he handed the role over to Ferb.

"You didn't rig it like the Vault lights, did you?" Ferb asked.

Phineas stuck out his tongue, making Vanessa laugh. Ferb grinned in reply before beginning to type on the keyboard. "Good afternoon," he said aloud.

The computer screen lit up. _"Name and Password please_," it spoke.

"Oh wow," Vanessa said in awe, leaning over Ferb's chair. "You guys designed it to speak too?"

"When you have as much of an imagination as Phineas does, and as much experience in mechanics as I do, then it's hard not to make something of it," Ferb replied. "Phineas proposed the idea six summers ago. It's come in handy for us on certain occasions, especially when we want to play video games with friends across the neighbourhood."

"You guys designed it when you were _nine?" _

"Well, I was ten, but yes."

Vanessa was awestruck. Her long brown hair draped over her shoulders as she turned and looked at Phineas.

Phineas was sitting on another computer chair, legs spread out and arms crossed over its back. Looking up innocently at her, he grinned.

"I knew you guys did crazy things, after what Candace told me, but I had no idea you two were really capable at producing something this massive at such an early age," Vanessa said.

Ferb looked through a notebook he kept near the computer. "We've each had our influences, I suppose," he muttered. Leaning towards the microphone, he said, "Ferb Fletcher; PNF1356TEN."

The computer whirred and the screen turned green. "_Welcome, Ferb Fletcher_," its voice greeted monotonously. As the desk top faded into view, it added, "_What would you like to do today?" _

"Open Live Video Feed," Ferb replied while typing in a command.

_"Locations?" _

"Flynn-Fletcher Residence, Phineas and Ferb's bedroom, to Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated."

A giant screen fell from the ceiling, nearly surprising Vanessa in the progress. Ferb pressed the _enter_ button and moved his chair away until he was near Phineas. "The computer is calling him now," he said. "If his system hasn't malfunctioned, he should be receiving the call immediately."

"Granted he knows how to _answer_ it," Vanessa muttered, sitting down on Phineas' bed. "He's amazing when it comes to building things, but when it comes to webcam and wifi, he's still dull."

Phineas covered his mouth and seemed to giggle. Ferb looked at him and smiled as well until his cell phone rang. Sitting up straight, he looked at his pocket. Leaning over, Phineas did the same.

"Does the PC display your number too?" his girlfriend asked curiously.

Ferb shook his head and held the phone up to his ear. "Hello?" he said.

_"Hi, Ferb; is Phineas around?" _

Ferb raised his eyebrows and looked at Phineas from the corner of his eye. Without speaking, he mouthed the word _Isabella. _

Phineas widened his eyes in horror.

_"I tried calling his cell earlier today and then called your landline, but apparently he was tied up_," Isabella announced. _"Is he nearby? I wanted to talk to him about something…"_

Ferb bit his lip nervously. "Uuuuhhh, well he _is_ nearby," he began.

_"Can I speak to him please? I needed to ask him when we can get together to practice for the play. I have this line I'm having trouble with and—!"_

"—He's nearby, but he's too busy to come to the phone, Bella," Ferb replied anxiously. "We, uh… we're in the middle of something rather important."

Isabella was silent for a second or two. _"But he said that he would practice our lines with me at least once before Christmas_," she pointed out.

"He's a little caught up at the moment. I'm doing some critical research and Phineas has… uh volunteered to help me." When Ferb looked at Phineas, he noticed the uneasy move his brother made every time he had to lie; Phineas reached up and began itching and tugging on his ear.

_"Ferb, I need to speak with him now_," Isabella said impatiently. _"You don't think I know by now if you guys are hiding something? Who do you take me for, anyway? Get Phineas on the phone now or else—!"_

The giant computer screen suddenly flashed and the video feed from a laboratory in disarray faded into view. Ferb immediately looked up at it and could not be the least bit grateful for the timing. "Uh, sorry, Isabella, but I'm getting another call," he said quickly. "You can chat with Phineas tomorrow at school; see ya!" With that, he hung up the phone and looked at his brother.

Phineas seemed to be frowning softly at him, but whether it was out of disappointment of Ferb hanging up on Isabella or of disappointment of not being able to have the chance to try and speak with her, Ferb had no idea.

"Don't give me that look, this is all your fault, remember?" Ferb said flatly before looking up at the screen.

Vanessa was already giggling behind her hand. "Looks like Perry's come and gone already," she said, noticing the disaster in her father's lab.

Ferb and Phineas looked at her for a moment before the green-haired sixteen-year-old decided to begin. Clearing his throat, he said, "Uh, Dr. Doofenshmirtz?"

There was a bit of a tussle and some soft curses in German. Ferb felt a tap on his shoulder; when he turned around, Phineas was holding his sketchbook up at him.

_You're asking a guy, who can't even work a stupid webcam, for help, Ferb. You do notice that, right_? Phineas' tedious expression was all Ferb needed to get the message, though.

Ferb shrugged apologetically until a hand appeared in the camera.

"Stupid contraption I-I never seem—oh, this is just so ridiculous, I mean _really_!" Doofenshmirtz voice groaned. His face finally came into view, although it was incredibly close to the lens. "Can you see me? Can—can anybody hear me? Hello?"

Phineas and Ferb recoiled as Vanessa slapped her forehead. "Dad, just look at the video feed on the computer screen next to the camera and you'll see us," she sighed. "Not to mention backing up a few feet may help."

"Oh, well why didn't you say that in the first place?" Doof backed away until they could properly see him. "Okay, now I see you." He crossed his arms. "So what's with this silly talking computer thingy? I mean, what ever happened to phones?"

"We needed to show you something but since you were busy with Perry, we decided to do it over the camera," Vanessa explained. She held out her hand in Phineas and Ferb's direction. "Dad, you remember Phineas Flynn and Ferb Fletcher, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, how could I forget them?" Doof replied as the boys waved uneasily. The man narrowed his eyes. "They only house my arch nemesis." He pointed at Ferb. "And _he_ goes out with my daughter, who's six years _older_ than him…" He pointed at Phineas next, glaring in irritation. "And _he's_ the crazy little kid who couldn't keep his blasted mouth shut for a single second!"

Phineas blushed while smiling wryly.

"I mean really, Kid; do you have an off switch somewhere?"

That comment made Phineas glare back, but Ferb cleared his throat and spoke before his brother did anything. "Speaking of Phineas, Sir, he's the reason I asked to contact you," he began. "You see, my brother tried fixing something for me and it sort of… well, took away his voice."

Doof tilted his head curiously and looked at Phineas again.

"One of my inventions somehow made him mute, and we can't seem to figure out how to bring his voice back."

At these words, an amused smile spread over the scientist's face. "You mean he actually can't speak anymore?" he said. When Ferb nodded, Doof waved a hand before the camera. "Well then, what do you need _me_ for? I think you've fixed your problem right there! I kind of like the kid _with_ a permanent mute button, if you ask me."

Phineas slapped his hands down furiously against the back of the chair and squeezed his fists while baring his teeth. He then pointed menacingly at Ferb, as if ordering him to cut communications.

"Dad, that's _really_ uncalled for," Vanessa scolded. "Phineas may be a bit of a chatterbox, but he—!"

"A _bit_?" Doof snorted. "Vanessa, he's like a cuckoo clock that won't stop cuckooing!"

Vanessa frowned. "He may be a _chatterbox_, Dad, but at least he's a more decent inventor than _you_ are!" she snapped.

At these words, her father fell silent. He did not seem hurt by these words, but by the glare he shot at Phineas, anyone could tell that he was incredibly jealous. "Yeah, okay, so he can invent things that actually _work_," he mumbled while crossing his arms. "He's never named them _whatever-inators." _

Phineas wrote something down in his sketchbook and held it up to the screen for the scientist to see. Doof leaned forward and squinted before reading it aloud. "Not very creative," he muttered. He squeezed his fists. "Why, you little brat!" he snapped.

Ferb pushed Phineas' arms down, although was not the least bit surprised that Phineas was being even the least bit rude this time round. Ever since they had discovered Perry's secret identity, Doofenshmirtz had known Phineas and Ferb for being successful in their creations. It had sparked up a bit of jealousy, and since Phineas was slightly protective of his pet platypus, never mind the fact that Doof had just openly insulted him, Ferb could understand perfectly why Phineas was making an exception this once and not being cooperative with the man.

"Okay, Dad, we _just_ need your input on this," Vanessa groaned loudly as Phineas turned the chair around and kept his back to the scientist. "Ferb said that Phineas accidentally pushed a new combination which muted his voice completely and could not reverse it. Considering you're an expert at things malfunctioning, the boys decided to give you a call. That _means_ that they need your help. Okay?"

Doof seemed to be considering this. He rubbed his chin thoughtfully before looking at Ferb again. "So you say he pushed a sequence that was different than what you had recorded," he muttered.

Ferb nodded.

"Did he write this sequence down by any chance?"

Ferb nodded again.

"Okay… And have you attempted to reverse it yet?"

Ferb shook his head. "That's where I'm unsure where to start," he replied.

Doof rolled his eyes. "Well, hello, you need to actually _start_ before asking for help, Green-head," he scoffed. "Try pushing the sequence in reverse or something. That always seems to knock things back into position."

Ferb was not the least bit content that the man had called him Green-head, but he did not comment on it. "That seems too simple," he concluded.

"Oh please; what is it with you kids nowadays and always thinking of things the _hard_ way?" Doof groaned. "Don't you ever expect the answer to be simple or what?"

Ferb was beginning to grow impatient with the man. He could now see why Phineas had objected with speaking with him.

Doof did not seem to notice it. He only sighed and beckoned with his finger. "Okay, if it makes you feel better, tell him to turn around and I can look at him properly," he said.

Ferb and Vanessa looked at Phineas. The red-head slowly turned around in his chair and stared from Ferb to the scientist on the screen.

Doof pointed at his mouth. "Open up wide so I can get a look at your chords, Kid," he said.

Phineas looked at Ferb again before finally giving in and opening his mouth.

"Good," Doof replied. "Now, Vanessa, tell me how to zoom in so that I can—!"

At that moment, the bedroom door burst open and in ran a platypus with aqua-coloured fur. It stood on its back legs and wore a brown fedora on its head, but the three teenagers knew who it was the moment he bounced in without even looking at the creature's brown eyes.

"Perry!" Vanessa gasped.

The platypus seemed to have ignored her and simply ran up to Ferb's bed, where he leaped onto the mattress and then flipped through the air in order to land on the desk in front of the computer screen, which was showing the same video feed as the screen above. There, he glared furiously at his nemesis.

"Perry the Platypus?" Doof said in shock. "Where did you come fro—I mean weren't you just here? How did you get there so fast?" Without waiting for an answer, the man frowned. "Ge-get out of the way, you crazy mammal! Can't you see I'm in the middle of som—!"

Before he could finish, Perry slapped his tail down on top of the desktop and then pulled out the chords that connected the camera to the computer. Both screens immediately went black and all communications ceased to exist.

Ferb grasped his hair, more worried about his system than the communications.

"Perry, what the heck was that for?" Vanessa exclaimed as the platypus turned around to face them. "You beat him already; can't you just give him a break or something?"

Perry frowned at her and then shot a furious glare at Phineas and Ferb. Teeth bared, he made his usual chirping noise while clenching his teeth, almost as if demanding to know whose idea it was.

Phineas, eyes wide and back straight, immediately raised both hands and pointed at his stepbrother. Ferb recoiled in surprise at this.

Perry did not. The platypus only frowned harder and began shaking the camera chords in his fist while furiously growling. It was not often that anyone heard him get this enraged about something.

Ferb spread out his arms. "Well, who else was I supposed to call for help?" he exclaimed.

Perry made a furious chattering noise and continued to shake the camera chords in his hand. Phineas wrote something down in his notebook and held it up so that Ferb could read it:

_I think he's saying that we're smarter than Doof is, Ferb. _

Ferb rolled his eyes and looked at the platypus again. "If _you_ know of anyone else, then I'll gladly take the suggestion, thank you," he groaned while crossing his arms. "If we really _are_ smarter than Dr. Doofenshmirtz, then who else am I supposed to call for help?"

Perry squawked angrily as he dropped the chords and waved his arms about. Leaping off of the desk, he ran to Phineas' dresser, climbed up to the top and held up a photo frame of the boys' parents. He pointed at it.

Phineas, Ferb and Vanessa looked at each other.

Perry tossed the frame aside and jumped from the dresser to Phineas' bed. He ran up to the window and grabbed a photo frame of the boys with their sister, Candace. Again, he pointed vigorously at it.

Again, the three humans looked from the platypus to each other.

Finally, setting this frame down, Perry growled loudly and pointed at himself. This, he did exasperatingly.

Surprised by the answer, Phineas pointed at the platypus as though questioning him. Perry ignored the sixteen-year-old's pointed index and jumped from the windowsill to Ferb's bed. After running up to Ferb, he climbed up the teenager's back and, with astonishing strength for such a small mammal, he slapped Ferb over the head with his flat tail.

"OW!" Ferb exclaimed painfully while rubbing his scalp. As he did, Perry leaped from him to Phineas, and only did the same thing with the red-head. Because he was unable to make a sound, Phineas flinched in tremendous pain and covered his head while staring at the platypus almost in fear.

Perry leaped off of him and got onto the floor. He shot an angry look at Vanessa and pointed at her. Vanessa recoiled in fright and immediately covered her head, almost afraid that he would do the same to her as he had done to the boys.

But the platypus did not. He simply lowered his arm and then placed his hands on his hips while frowning at Phineas and Ferb. Growling behind his teeth, he tapped his foot and awaited an explanation.

Ferb, still rubbing his cranium, opened an eye and looked at the platypus. "I didn't know _you'd_ know what to do about it," he mumbled stubbornly.

Perry stomped his foot and pointed at Phineas while slapping his tail against the floor. He measured the air with his hands as if to estimate the height of a child. Ferb guessed him to be saying something like, "I've been his pet for the past fourteen years and yours for the past twelve; do you honestly believe that I wouldn't know how to take care of you two if one of your inventions went crazy?"

Phineas and Ferb had honestly underestimated their platypus' intelligence. Ferb shamefully looked away.

Perry pointed at Ferb again while chattering energetically until Phineas stood up and got between the animal and his stepbrother. The platypus immediately fell silent and looked up at him.

Phineas wrote something down in his sketchbook and then squatted in order to come as close to his pet as possible. Here, he held the book out to Perry.

Perry took it while still frowning softly and read the note:

_It's not his fault; I was the one who started the mess. Don't get mad at Ferb. He's only trying to help fix my mistake. _

Perry raised his eyebrows, showing that he was the least bit impressed by Phineas' stand. But when he grinned and looked up at the teenager, one could tell that he did not seem the least bit surprised by this action in the least.

Ferb peered over Phineas shoulder out of curiosity. Perry looked at him for a moment before looking at Phineas again. Holding out his hand, he made notion by his fingers that he wanted Phineas' pencil. Once the teenager had given it to him, the platypus turned the page of the book and wrote on it. After he had finished, he beckoned Ferb over and then held up the sketchbook so that both boys could see:

_Doofenshmirtz may be a harmless human off-duty, but in the end he's still evil and is capable of creating dangerous things. The last thing I need is for him to do something worse to either of you just in order to get back at me. _

He wrote something else down and then showed it again.

_Ferb, although I really shouldn't be worrying too much about you, you're still naïve to a certain degree. It's good that you're helping your brother, but don't ask for Doof's help. Trust me; he's the last person you want a helping hand from. _

Ferb sighed heavily. "So then, what should I do?" he asked.

Perry handed the book back to its owner and climbed onto Ferb's shoulder. There, he gently patted the teenagers head and then reached out to grab Phineas'. He pulled the red-head over until the two were nearly touching.

Curiously, Phineas and Ferb looked at each other.

Vanessa was already laughing. "I think what he's trying to say is that you two are smarter together than my dad is on his own," she said.

While Phineas grinned at this, Ferb did not. "But that still leaves me at square one," he said. "I have no idea what I should do in order to figure this out. And if Phineas doesn't get his voice back by Saturday, we won't be able to perform."

Perry chattered and rapped his knuckles against Ferb's head. Ferb shuddered before rubbing his head again and frowning at the platypus. "Alright, I get your point," he groaned, making his girlfriend laugh. As Perry leaped off of them and allowed them to get to their feet, Ferb sighed and looked at his brother. "Well, considering it's nearly dinner time now, we should probably hang this up and deal with it tomorrow," he suggested. "I'll bring the box with me tomorrow to school so that we can look at it over lunch hour, alright?"

Phineas gave him an uneasy look before looking away and rubbing his arm. Obviously, he was incredibly nervous about attending school without a voice.

Ferb placed a hand on his shoulder as if to comfort him and then looked at Vanessa. "Thank you for coming anyway," he said.

Vanessa shrugged her shoulders. "Hey; it got me out of my dad's lab, so I don't care if I got anything productive out of this or not," she replied.

Ferb nodded in return before looking at Phineas again. The young inventor had pulled himself away from Ferb and was now staring outside the window. Snow was falling from the gray sky above as the sky began to darken with the approaching night.

Ferb knew he was feeling more and more uneasy, if not insecure; Phineas, despite being the youngest of their group of friends, had always been the voice of reason, of hope and of encouragement. Despite being a bit of a chatterbox, all he spoke of were inventions to help people, to make days more pleasurable, and words of encouragement and leadership. He had always been the designated leader, since everyone turned to him when they were stuck in a jam.

Ferb walked up to him and stared out the window as he set his elbows down over the sill by Phineas'. Becoming the one in full charge and the one who could verbally communicate with others was looking more and more like an unreal dream; Ferb did not feel like he would be cut out for the task. It suddenly seemed as though Phineas had taken his place, and Ferb had taken his. And both of them were clearly uncomfortable with the sudden switch.

Ferb took a deep breath. "We'll figure it out," he said softly, although Phineas did not look at him. "We always do."

He wondered if he was even cut out to delivering as encouraging a message as Phineas was.


	6. Chapter 6

Isabella had gotten a ride to school Tuesday morning, so she had not had the chance of giving her neighbours a piece of her mind yet. She was not the least bit impressed that Phineas did not answer his cell _or _call her back, and she was even more upset that Ferb would hang up on her like he did.

"Sometimes, I don't know who's worse," Isabella groaned as she walked swiftly down the hallway towards the boys' lockers. "Phineas, Ferb, or Phineas and Ferb together. Sheesh! What is it with boys being so rude?"

When she turned the corner, she found that both teenagers had arrived at school and were presently chatting in front of their lockers… or at least, _Ferb_ was.

Isabella stopped in her tracks for a moment and pondered this. _Hm. Since when does Ferb do the talking and Phineas does the listening? Isn't it normally the other way around?_

She saw Ferb point at Phineas' backpack. The red-head reached over his shoulder for it and pulled out his sketchbook. While pointing at the book in his brother's hands, Ferb spoke again.

_Looks like he's giving him instructions, _Isabella noted. _I wonder what for?_

Ferb then pulled out his cell phone and gestured that Phineas did the same. Once Phineas had pulled his out of his pocket, Isabella remembered her current issue and immediately began to fume again. In a huff, she continued to storm towards them.

Phineas and Ferb both looked up when they saw Isabella headed their way. Neither of them said a single word. Isabella came to a stop before Phineas, placed her hands behind her back and forced up a smile. "Hi, Phineas," she said, pretending to sound cheerful. "Whatcha doin'?"

Phineas looked at Ferb for a moment; but when he was about to shrug his reply, Isabella frowned and poked his chest with her index finger. "Since _when _do you not answer my calls, Phineas Flynn?" she snapped, making Phineas recoil fright. "I mean, don't you _normally _have your cell on because you make yourself available for me? Isn't that what you _said _you'd do? _Huh?"_

Phineas glued himself again his locker. His blue eyes seemed to be filled with confusion, fear, and innocence, all at once.

"And another thing," Isabella added; "Why didn't you tell me you were doing something yesterday? I mean, aren't I _normally_ implicated in these sorts of things? Why were you ignoring me, Phineas Flynn? I want an explanation now—!"

To her complete surprise, Ferb gently grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her away from Phineas. "Isabella, there's a good reason why Phineas kept his cellphone off and did not call you," Ferb explained. "And… a very good reason why I was forced to hang up on you as well."

Isabella seemed doubtful. She crossed her arms and leaned on a hip. "Oh, really?" she said. "Well, then, spit it out; I wanna know why my own neighbours and two best friends completely ignored me yesterday!"

"Phineas has no voice."

These words were nearly inaudible. Isabella remained silent for a moment before leaning forward and staring at Ferb in confusion. "Pardon?" she asked, more or less out of curiosity.

Ferb and Phineas exchanged an uneasy look before looking at the girl again. "Phineas has lost his voice, Isabella," Ferb repeated. "I created a special invention a few weeks back without Phineas' help, but I deemed it dangerous because of what it could do. Phineas tried to fix it for me, but when he did, he accidentally pushed a new combination which… seems to have muted him."

Isabella's eyes went wide as she gaped at Ferb. Covering her mouth, she looked at Phineas.

"That's why he kept his phone off," Ferb added. "He didn't want to sound as though he was ignoring you."

Isabella placed her other hand over her mouth as well. "Oh, no," she said while shaking her head. "Oh, Phineas, I am _so _sorry I snapped at you like that without first asking why! I'm so, _so _sorry! Can you forgive me?"

But she knew she did not need to ask. Phineas would already grant her wish. Smiling compassionately like he normally did, Phineas placed a hand on Isabella's shoulder and nodded.

Isabella blushed for a second or two before looking at Ferb again. "So, what are we going to do about it?" she asked. "I mean, not only do we have classes until Friday, or that play to rehearse, but on Saturday night, we—!"

"—Are performing for the highschool Christmas banquet, I know," Ferb sighed. "And we can't perform if our lead singer can't… sing." He pointed at Phineas' sketchbook. "I brought the invention with me so that we can look at it at lunch hour, but until I find a solution, Phineas' only means of communication will be his sketchbook."

Isabella made a disappointed scowl. "That'll be weird," she said. "I mean, he's normally the one who talks all the time and you're the one who keeps quiet. Without Phineas there to do most of the chatting like usual, we're—!"

To her surprise, Phineas had written a message down on his sketchbook while she spoke. As he held it up to show her, an irritated glare fell over his face.

Isabella leaned towards the book. "'I may be mute, Izzie, but I can still hear perfectly fine,'" she read aloud. As Ferb covered his mouth and giggled silently, Isabella blushed and leaned back with a nervous smile. "Uh, sorry, Phineas," she apologized. "I didn't mean to say that in an insulting way."

Phineas grinned amusingly before closing his sketchbook and tucking it under his arm. Holding up his left wrist, he looked at Ferb while pointing at his watch.

Ferb nodded in reply and hoisted up his shoulder bag. "Anyway, we can speak more about it later, Bella," he said. "As Phineas has pointed out, we're going to get a tardy if we don't head for class immediately."

Isabella stared at him in awe for a moment before looking at Phineas again. All the red-head did was shrug.

"This is _too _weird," she said, almost worriedly. "Ferb's become Phineas and Phineas has become Ferb."

Phineas and Ferb looked at each other and exchanged the same concerned look. "Yes," Ferb replied quietly. "We've… noticed it too."

* * *

Baljeet and Buford had not had the chance to speak with Phineas, Ferb or Isabella that morning before classes, so the first time they got a chance to finally end up anywhere near them was in science class.

As usual, Phineas and Ferb sat at the same science table; nearby, Baljeet and Buford did the same, despite their bully-bullied friendship, and a few tables away, Isabella sat with one of her friends from cheerleading. They were currently whispering about something that the boys could not hear, but Phineas noticed that every time a girl raised her head and looked at him and Ferb, they would turn away quickly and giggle.

This made him frown in confusion before laying his head down against the lab table. As a child, he had often believed to know exactly what romance was about—he had been the one to put together the romantic cruise for Baljeet and his best friend from India. But now that he had gotten into high school, Phineas realized that Romance was one department he simply was not expert at, nor was it something that truly interested him.

… At least, that's what he thought.

Isabella pushed back some of her long black hair before turning her head slightly and smiling at a friend who called across the room to her. Phineas watched her as he did and suddenly found that his chest became hot; immediately afterwards, his heart began to beat madly against his ribcage.

His eyes went wide as he turned his gaze away from his neighbour and stared at the back of the student sitting in front of him. Whoa. That's weird. He had had moments such as that before, but as usual, he was unsure why it had begun or why it was happening more and more often.

"Phineas?"

Without turning his head, Phineas looked up at his stepbrother. Ferb was looking at him in a rather curious way, with his head tilted to one side. "Why are you blushing?" he asked quietly.

Phineas immediately raised his hands and covered his cheeks. Yep; they felt hot.

"Did you forget your homework in your locker again?" When all Phineas did was stare quickly in a certain direction and then turn his gaze away, Ferb turned his head and realized that his brother had been staring at the group of girls Isabella was currently part of. Amused, the green-haired student decided to play along. "Can't choose which one to take to the Senior prom in a few years?" he teased softly.

Phineas widened his eyes and looked at him in shock.

"I hear Ginger's a good dancer… Or that new student Ariel from Montréal… Or maybe you were fancying a certain Mexican-Jewish student with long black hair—!"

At these words, Phineas glared furiously at him and whacked Ferb across the back with his sketchbook. Ferb simply choked on a laugh and looked at him again to see if his brother had blushed some more; sure enough, Phineas' face was nearly the same shade as his bright red hair.

Ferb smiled behind his hand; he knew Phineas still had no idea about Isabella's crush on him, and he also knew that his little brother was still unsure of what feelings he truly had for the girl either. But Ferb was more than certain that both had feelings for each other, even if Phineas had not yet realized it. The one thing that was amusing Ferb at the moment, however, was the fact that his brother was not the least bit impressed that he was attempting to spark up a conversation about Isabella in that manner.

Phineas passed his sketchbook to Ferb; having noticed that he had written a message on it, Ferb immediately took it:

_Not funny, not appreciating it, and don't talk about her like that. You make her sound like she's some kind of prize up for the grabbing, Ferb._

Ferb grinned and passed the book back. "You do realize that she's one of the most beautiful girls in school, right?" he whispered, although this only made his brother blush some more. "I heard that that football star in grade eleven already asked her out to the Valentine's Day dance—!"

At these words, Phineas shot up in his seat and stared in complete horror at his brother. Ferb could not help but finally laugh out loud and turn away to keep himself from seeing Phineas' expression. "She said no, by the way," he added through a laugh. He knew that this would only make Phineas slap him with his sketchbook again.

Which, incidentally, Phineas did with a shrewd smile.

The science teacher walked into the class at that moment, asking the students to calm down and return to their seats. The girls around Isabella quickly dashed off and the girl tied her hair up in a ponytail in order to keep it out of her eyes.

Phineas sat up straight and watched his teacher set his things down on his desk. Anxious about what he would do next, the young inventor began twiddling his thumbs and staring at his idea book before him.

Ferb noticed the anxiety grow in his little brother; in every class, the teacher would ask them questions about the readings they had to do every week. And like most teachers, he had chosen favourites in the class: Phineas and Ferb had been two of them. The problem with that, however, was that they were always asked to answer a question or two. The teacher enjoyed hearing what explanation these two creative stepbrothers had to give.

Phineas would have whimpered if he could, Ferb was sure of it. The red-headed sixteen-year-old leaned over their table and tried as hard as he could to look uninterested by sketching cartoons of his classmates in his notebook.

"Good morning, class," the teacher began while clasping his hands together. "As you all know, it's time for the weekly reading questions, just to see if you all did the assigned readings… And just because you're in the lineup for this Saturday's Christmas Banquet, it doesn't give you a freebie homework pass—that was directed to you, Mr. Van Stomm."

"Hey!" Buford exclaimed, making the class laugh.

Ferb listened to the teacher as he summarized what the readings were about—the chapter they were given to study was about some of the greatest scientists and physicists throughout history, which of course was a subject Ferb had always loved to read about. When the man began pointing at random students and asking questions, the green-haired student leaned over the table and attempted to make eye-contact with his brother. "You're not going to do that all week, are you?" he whispered.

Phineas looked at him for a moment before writing something down in his science notebook. He pushed the book over to his brother: _Any better ideas?_ His note said.

Ferb sighed before pulling himself back upright and writing down the answers to his teacher's questions. As soon as the lunch bell rang, he was going to pull Phineas aside and begin experimenting with the Vocal Box. Knowing that the first thing he would do was take it apart, he had brought along his tool box with him.

"Ferb Fletcher," the science teacher called out, catching his brightest student's attention, "Considering I know you read this chapter perhaps more than once—" the class giggled here "—Can you tell me why Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 1921?"

"Aw, come off it!" Buford complained. "Ask him something harder than that, for Pete's Sake!"

The teacher narrowed his eyes yet smiled amusingly as the students laughed. Once everyone had calmed down again, he returned his gaze to Ferb.

Ferb grinned; Einstein had been one of his favourite physicists to study about as a child. He knew absolutely everything there had to be known about him. "He won the Nobel Prize that year for his explanation of the Photoelectric Effect, as well as for his research in Theoretical Physics," he said, trying not to sound proud.

The teacher smiled. "Very good, absolutely correct," he said before moving onto the next student.

Ferb listened to the next question being asked until Phineas poked him with his pencil. Turning his head, he looked down at his brother's notebook when the red-head pushed it up to his elbow.

_Show off,_ Phineas' note teased. Ferb smiled slyly and was about to scribble over the note when their teacher spoke up once more:

"Phineas Flynn!"

Phineas immediately froze in shock as his eyes went wide. Even Ferb became the least bit concerned.

"Can you tell me what invention Thomas Edison is most known for?" The teacher smiled cleverly. "This is right up your alley, Mr. Flynn, Inventor and Tinkerer of Danville. I'm sure that, out of everyone in this class, you'd know this answer straight off the bat, wouldn't you?"

Phineas looked up at him, eyes still wide. Ferb could only imagine his brother's heart stop beating right then and there.

"So let's hear the answer, Phineas: what was Edison's most famous of inventions?"

Phineas continued to stare at him in silence as the entire class turned their eyes onto him. Quickly, he thought up different ways of getting himself out of that situation without letting everyone know that he had gone completely mute overnight. He, above all people, knew that there was always more than one solution out of a problem… but what _was_ the other solution? If he could not speak, there was no way he could possibly communicate his answer, right?

… Wrong.

The other solution came to mind just as his teacher was beginning to wonder why he was not answering. With a grin, Phineas pulled out his black sharpie and tore out a paper from his sketchbook. He drew something large down over the sheet, hiding the answer even from his stepbrother, and then pulled out his yellow highlighter and began coloring in the space he wanted coloured.

His classmates became curious. People began to whisper excitedly, wondering what the famed inventor was doing and how he would answer the teacher's question. Even the teacher became curious; Phineas always had a creative and unique way of answering his teacher's questions, but this was new.

Phineas continued to doodle until he had finished what he wanted to deliver. Then, while smiling a wide, Colgate grin, he lifted the sheet and held it up high. The next thing he did was point at it and then give the thumbs up.

His classmates threw their heads back and laughed: Phineas had drawn a quick sketch of a light bulb and had ingeniously thought of holding it directly over his head. Not only was it the correct answer, but it was the most known symbol for _I've got an idea!_

Even Ferb could not help but laugh.

Their teacher put his arm down and joined in the laughter before clearing his throat and waving a hand in the air. "The Electric Bulb, that's correct," he said through a giggle. "You can put your creativity down now, Phineas. We get the picture… _literally."_

After a few more chuckles, the class resumed and the teacher returned to asking questions. Ferb took the opportunity to lean down and whisper something in his brother's ear: "And you called _me _a show off?" he teased.

Phineas looked at him and smiled innocently in reply.


	7. Chapter 7

"You mean… he actually cannot speak?"

Isabella sighed tiredly while rolling her eyes. Right before heading to the cafeteria for lunch, she had decided to hint in Baljeet and Buford about Phineas and Ferb's dilemma. Unfortunately for that, Baljeet was _still_having difficulty understanding after the third repetition.

Buford glared at him and swatted the Indian student across the head. "Will that help clear it up for you?" he groaned.

Phineas and Ferb watched them bicker silently before Isabella cleared her throat. "Anyway, so because Phineas can't speak, he needs to communicate using his sketchbook," she went on. "So whatever you need to ask him, expect him to write the answer down, Capiche?"

Baljeet raised his hand like an obedient school boy. "So, is this going to affect Saturday night?" he asked.

Isabella, Phineas and Ferb looked at each other before staring at Baljeet once more. "We're not completely certain yet," Ferb replied. "I brought the invention with me so that Phineas and I can take a look at it, but I'm not entirely sure yet how I will be getting around to returning his voice."

"Meh, take your time on that," Buford muttered with a grin. "I think I'll enjoy this while it lasts."

The other four students stared at him in silence before Phineas frowned and crossed his arms. Isabella did the same. "Buford, that wasn't exactly what I call polite," she scolded him.

"But it's true," was the reply. "I don't hear any constant buzzing going on. Or any of those one-liners only an inventor can say."

Phineas's frown seemed to grow. Ferb noticed it do so, but instead of stopping Buford, he cleared his throat and placed his hands over his brother's shoulders. "Uh, considering it's lunch hour, Phineas and I will head off and start figuring out how to solve our problem," he said, changing subjects. He pulled Phineas backwards and then began pushing him off. "We'll see you this afternoon."

They watched them leave before Isabella waved goodbye and headed off for the cafeteria. After one last curious look, Baljeet and Buford followed her off as well. Ferb watched them do so before sighing softly and looking at Phineas. His little brother had his head lowered and his eyes darkened; it seemed almost as though he was thinking deeply about something troublesome.

"You alright?" Ferb asked softly, catching Phineas' attention. The red-head looked at him and smiled weakly in return before holding up the Vocal Box Ferb had handed to him from his locker.

Ferb grinned. "Yes; yes, we will figure it out now," he said.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon, Phineas had been able to go by without needing to speak or draw any unwanted attention to him. This made the day easier for him to bear, although Ferb could tell more and more that Phineas was having great difficulty hiding his disappointment in not being able to verbally communicate with everyone.

Isabella attempted to cheer him up on the way home from school in the bus; she pulled out the script of their English play, _Romeo and Juliet_, and began rehearsing parts in a dramatic way for the boys. Phineas found this not only amusing, but helpful in keeping his mind off of the difficulties he was having. The only time he seemed to regret having no voice on the way home was when Isabella began singing some of the lines she would have to sing in their musical line up for that Saturday night; Ferb eventually began singing his lines as well, but when Phineas found himself attempting to sing, nothing emanated from his vocal chords. This made him even more upset than he had been before—clapping the rhythm without singing had not been one of his favourite things to do.

When the boys arrived home, Linda immediately instructed them to get their homework done before their sister and her fiancé arrived for dinner. Phineas and Ferb did so obediently, though not without grabbing an afterschool snack and then greeting their pet platypus as he strolled into the house from an unknown entrance on the second floor.

"Oh, there you are Perry," Ferb announced as he and Phineas stopped at their bedroom door. Both boys immediately froze upon hearing this line being spoken by another; even Perry, once he was certain no one else was around, stood up on his hind legs and stared in shock at the green-haired sixteen-year-old.

Ferb placed a finger to his chin before sharing an uneasy look with his stepbrother. "Yyyeah, that was weird," he said.

Phineas nodded his agreement before opening the door and allowing all three of them entrance.

Once their homework had been completed, and once Ferb made sure that their mother did not need them yet, he began to put the Vocal Box back together, piece by piece—he and Phineas and looked it over during lunch hour, but Ferb had not had the chance to rebuild it again.

It was odd, working in complete silence in their bedroom. On any normal occasion, Phineas would be talking to him about new ideas or past inventions, all the while working on another gadget, drawing in his sketchbook or playing video games. Though Ferb did admit that Phineas tended to chatter more than he would have liked, he suddenly realized that it seemed empty without his cheerful voice.

Phineas without a voice simply was not Phineas.

Phineas seemed bothered about it as well. While Ferb put the Vocal Box back together again, his stepbrother was busy putting together another goofy invention. This one seemed to have even intrigued Perry; at the moment, the platypus was sitting on his owner's shoulder, staring curiously at the object that was once Linda's old boombox.

Ferb noticed that it did not seem like anything of any importance. That only meant that Phineas was bored or upset about something; if he was preoccupied, his inventions tended to be nothing more but fun little toys for kids to play with.

"What is it, exactly?" Ferb wondered after a moment or two of observing.

Phineas and Perry looked at him before the red-head pushed the ghetto-blaster into view. He tapped it once with his screw driver and then flicked the switch from _off_ to _radio_. Silly music began to play and lights began to flash until the speakers, or what _used_to be the speakers, fell open and out popped mechanical birds. The birds flapped their wings and opened their beaks while singing loudly and awkwardly.

Perry grunted in surprise and fell backwards off of Phineas's shoulder. Ferb laughed at the reaction, as well as the silly contraption, and then looked at his brother again once Phineas and looked over his shoulder and smiled at the platypus. "Bored, are you?" the English-born teenager noted.

Phineas looked at him and grinned weakly before staring at the cuckoo bird boombox. He grabbed the covers of the speakers and pushed them back up into place with a _click_. The music stopped here.

"Don't worry, Phin; you'll have your voice back soon," Ferb said, attempting once more to sound as cheerful as his brother was when he was encouraging others.

But Phineas only looked at the boombox with regret in his eyes. Ferb could tell he was desperate to have his voice back by Saturday. And not just in order to speak again…

… but to sing too.


	8. Chapter 8

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Okay, for some reason all the words in italic are being joined with the word after it. And this stupid site won't fix it for me. So just... go with the flow guys._

* * *

"So, Candace, how goes the job search?" Lawrence asked as he passed the plate of steak around the table that night at dinner.

His daughter grabbed it from him and took a piece of meat before passing the plate onto her fiancé. "A little rough, but I'm positive," Candace replied. "As long as I can start saving up a bit for music college, I don't care." Shortly after Phineas and Ferb had helped their mother set the table, Candace and Jeremy arrived. However, because of Phineas' muteness, Ferb made up a clever excuse to keep them away from their sister and her fiancé; he claimed that Isabella needed some help with some singing, and before either of their parents could say anything, Phineas and Ferb had left the house and walked across the street to visit their neighbour.

Of course, Isabella had been informed about this by text, and so instead all three sat in her backyard until Linda called her sons back.

"Have you had any luck on getting accepted at any school?" Linda wondered.

"Haven't heard anything yet, but if I don't hear by next week, I can always try next year," Candace replied. "Besides; with the wedding happening in a few months, I don't think I'd have enough place in my mind to stress about moving for college too."

"How about you, Jeremy?" Lawrence said as Ferb handed him the peas. "Have you had any luck in finding a good job too?"

Jeremy grinned once he had swallowed what was in his mouth. "Thankfully, I am," he replied. "A local band's asked me to start writing songs for their group, and so far the studio's liked every single one I dished out. The manager told me that if I do have to move for Candace's school, then he'd be sure to make a few phone calls and put in a good word for me."

Lawrence chuckled as he began eating his meal. "Sounds to me like you two are off to a perfect start," he noted.

Jeremy nodded his head in thanks before looking at his soon-to-be-brothers-in-law. Phineas and Ferb were silently seated at the opposite end of the table, either pouring juice into their cups or cutting up the steak on their plates. Neither of them said a single word as the adults spoke, and neither of them made any sign of seeming the least bit interested.

"How about you guys?" Jeremy spoke up. When both inventors raised their heads and looked at him, he added, "You guys have that Christmas Banquet on Saturday, right? My sister told me that you two had your band up for a few songs." Smiling shrewdly, Jeremy asked, "I hear you've brought back _Phineas and the Ferbtones_. Is that just a rumour or is it real?"

Phineas and Ferb stared at him silently before looking at each other. Clearing his throat, Ferb replied: "Not rumours; it's all real," he stated as Phineas placed a piece of steak into his mouth. "However, we don't intend on making a _big thing_out of it. It's only our high school band, that's all."

"Sounds sweet," Jeremy concurred. "You on bass or piano for this?"

"A bit of both. And I will be playing my harmonica in one of our songs as well."

Jeremy grinned at this before looking at the red-head. "How about you, Phin?" he said, causing Phineas to raise his head quickly. "What are you going to be doing?"

Phineas stared at him in utter silence before looking at Ferb for assistance. "Uuuhhh, he'll be singing of course," Ferb replied while grinning wryly. "As all of us will be, though he'll be the lead singer for most songs. He's also playing his guitar and his violin. And while Buford takes out his saxophone, Phineas will get to play the drums." He picked up some peas with his fork. "Also, I will be playing the acoustic guitar while he and Isabella sing a duet."

He had hoped not to arouse any unwanted attention from anyone. Ferb succeeded in this with his parents—both Linda and Lawrence nodded their heads and returned to their meals. But Jeremy seemed a little stunned, whether about the musical line-up or Ferb's sudden and long reply, the sixteen-year-old never found out.

Then there was Candace. Out of the corner of his eye, Ferb noticed his sister stare suspiciously at him.

_Ho boy_, he thought while picking up his glass.

Jeremy remained silent before clearing his throat and picking up some steak. "That sounds like a fantastic line-up," he said, smiling again. "You two have your work cut out for each other."

Ferb nodded in appreciation before returning to his meal. Phineas did the same, not forgetting to smile innocently.

"So… how's Vanessa doing, Ferb?" Jeremy asked after a moment of silence. "Did you take her out to that restaurant you were talking about?" When Ferb nodded his reply again, Jeremy looked at Phineas. With a grin, he said, "And what big ideas have been sprouting in your head again, Phineas?" He was more than certain this question would make the teenager talk. "Candace was telling me that you found your biological dad's old blueprints somewhere in the attic. Have you done anything creative with those yet? Or even better, have you added onto them?"

Phineas stared at Jeremy in complete shock; but before he could even think of looking on worriedly, Ferb spoke up once more, rescuing him in the nick of time: "He took a look at them, yes," the green-haired teenager said, "But we haven't quite had the chance to really do anything with them. But he's made marks here and there on where he would _like_to improve them once we get the chance to. We're currently working on something else, so he decided to save them for later."

Jeremy and Candace stared at him in complete bewilderment. Then, unable to contain herself any longer, Candace frowned and placed her hands firmly over the table top. "Okay; _what_is going on?" she asked suspiciously, catching everyone's attention.

Phineas and Ferb looked at her as innocently as they possibly could. "Pardon?" Ferb said.

"Don't _pardon_me, Genius; what are you two hiding?"

"Candace, what on Earth are you trying to say?" Lawrence asked curiously.

Candace looked at her father before frowning at her youngest sibling. "Those two; they're hiding something," she said.

Linda sighed in exasperation. "Candace, we are _not_going to start this over tonight, are we?" she asked.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed it, Mom!" Candace looked at Phineas again and pointed at him. "Why's Phineas so _quiet_ all of a sudden? Hm? And why is _Ferb_ doing all the talking? Something's wrong with this picture; am I the _only_one here who notices it?"

"Oh, that!" Lawrence exclaimed. "Oh you see, Candace, Phineas has been trying to keep his voice in perfect tune for this Saturday night. So while he rests his vocal chords, Ferb's volunteered to do the talking for him."

Candace stared at him as he spoke, but when she looked at her brothers again, Ferb knew more than anyone that she could tell they were hiding something.

The nineteen-year-old continued to stare at them in silence before finally rising to her feet incredibly quickly. "Okay; Brother-Sister talk, _right_now!" she snapped, pointing at the boys.

"Candace, we're in the middle of dinner!" Linda pointed out as her sons rose calmly to their feet.

"It'll only take a second, Mom," her daughter replied as her brothers walked by. Frowning at them once more, Candace placed her hands firmly around Phineas and Ferb's shirts and literally dragged them into the hallway. "Sibling talk now!" she snapped again. "Move, move, move!"

Linda, Lawrence and Jeremy watched them disappear around the corner before looking at each other again. "So!" Jeremy began; "How's the antique shop coming along?"

* * *

Candace would have grabbed her brothers by their ears if she did not know her mother would not appreciate it. Once she was certain they were out of sight and out of earshot, she let go of both Phineas and Ferb and crossed her arms. "Okay, explain now," she demanded firmly.

Phineas and Ferb looked at each other before staring up at their sister again. "Explain what?" Ferb echoed.

"Not _you_, Wisecrack!" Candace snapped. Pointing at Phineas, she said, "_Him_explain!"

Phineas pointed at himself inquisitively.

"I know that whatever you two are up to, _you're_ the one who came up with the idea, so _spit it out_, Phineas Flynn!" Candace ordered. Pointing at herself, she said, "I'm trying to be a singer, Imagination Station! Do you think I wouldn't know that _not_ practicing before a gig is a _bad_thing for your vocals? Whatever you said to fool Mom and Dad won't work on me, so spit it out!"

Phineas put his hand down and shrugged.

"Oh, don't give me that! You've been coming up with _crazy_ ideas since you were a kid; you don't think I'd know by now when you're up to something?" Placing a menacing finger against her biological brother's chest, Candace added, "Tell me what's up or I'm telling _Mom!" _

Ferb quickly placed his hands against Candace's shoulders and gently pushed her away from their little brother. "Shouting won't do you any good, Candace," he explained as gently as he could. "Phineas won't be able to answer you."

His sister laughed sarcastically at this. "_Phineas_won't be able to answer me?" she mocked. "I find that hard to believe, don't you? If anyone can't help but to answer a question, it's him!"

"And he probably _would_answer you if he could, but—!"

"And that's another thing! Since when have _you_become the chatterbox?" Candace placed a finger against Ferb's nose. "You only seem to talk when you have some wisecrack remark to say, or at least something that could be of good use!"

"If you stopped shouting, then I can explain what's going on," Ferb insisted.

Candace pulled her finger away from her brother's nose, allowing Ferb to rub it. "Well then, spit it out!" she snapped. Looking at Phineas again, she added, "Or even better, why don't _you_spit it out?"

"Candace, Phineas won't be able to answer you—!"

"You and I both know that's a lie, Ferb, because—!"

"—His voice is gone."

Candace opened her mouth to continue but when Ferb spoke these last words, she found herself speechless. Closing her gaping mouth, the red-head woman stared in confusion at her stepbrother.

Ferb shrugged as worry settled in his dark blue eyes. "Phineas lost his voice," he explained. "… And I do mean that literally."

Candace gawked once more before looking at Phineas again.

"He was trying to fix one of my personal inventions, but accidentally pressed a new combination which… mysteriously muted him."

Candace stared at him with wide eyes. "You're actually serious?" she said in awe. Looking at Phineas again, she added, "You mean Phineas actually has no _voice?" _

Phineas opened his mouth and seemed to mouth the words, _Not anymore_, but absolutely no sound emanated from between his lips.

This time Candace covered her mouth in shock. "Oh, my God, you actually _are_ serious," she gasped. Slapping her forehead with a loud groan, she added, "Phineas, how do you _get _yourself into these messes?"

Phineas shrugged apologetically before looking at his feet in shame. Ferb sighed and passed a hand through his hair. "I'm trying everything I can to bring his voice back, but so far, I haven't figured out what went wrong, or where it actually went," he said in defeat. "It's as if it just… disappeared. Like all those things we made as children."

"That's ridiculous, Ferb; Phineas couldn't have permanently lost his voice," his sister disagreed. She studied her youngest sibling before looking at Ferb once more. "So… what are we going to do about it?"

"So far, all _I_can do is make up excuses and speak for him—!"

"Yeah, _that's_already weirding me out."

"—But if we get up on stage on Saturday and Mother and Father _both_ realize that Phineas can't actually sing, or _speak_for that matter, we'll be in a bit of a fix… So far, the only way we can communicate is if Phineas writes down in his sketchbook."

Candace sighed and passed a hand over her face before looking at Phineas again. "There are days where I wish I _wasn't_blood-related to you," she said to him. After a moment of silence she placed her hands on her hips and looked at Ferb. "Okay; what do you want me to do?"

Phineas and Ferb both stared at her in shock. "Wh… What do you mean?" Ferb wondered.

"Obviously Mom's going to eventually figure out that Phineas wasn't _actually_warming his vocal chords up, Ferb, and you won't be able to cover your goof-up on your own, so… Consider me in."

"But aren't you normally attempting to _expose_ things like these to our parents?" Ferb pointed at his stepsister. "I mean, you _did_admit to us about a year ago that you've been trying to… what is it you called it—!"

Candace rolled her eyes. "_Bust_ you, Ferb," she said. "I've was trying to _bust_ you… And on certain occasions, I still _am_trying and failing."

"So then, why are you _asking_ to be part of this instead of… _busting_us?"

Candace sighed tiredly. "Ferb, I think I'm old enough to know when to attempt to bust you and when to be a responsible big sister," she said. Raising an eyebrow, she added, "Plus; I think what you and Phineas just did is pretty much _busting_yourselves, don't you think? Or at least, busting up Phin's vocals."

Phineas and Ferb exchanged a curious look before the red-headed tinkerer looked away worriedly and crossed his arms. With a sigh, he leaned against the wall.

Candace watched him do so before frowning and gently slapping Phineas's cheek over and over again. "Hey, hey, no sad faces," she scolded, only ceasing to slap him once Phineas and turned his head and looked at her again. "I already told you that doesn't work on you, remember? This isn't supposed to be a defeat, Phineas, you've come up against worst things, for Pete's Sake. Okay, so you went and finally did something _stupid_while attempting to be helpful, but if you don't smarten up and keep acting like that resourceful dork who can't hold a grudge, then expect to stay mute for good. Capiche?"

Phineas stared at her in silence before finally smiling in reply and nodding.

"Geez, you're like a little puppy," Candace muttered, slightly amused. Looking at Ferb, she said. "Okay; I need to come over again during the week to look some things over with mom for the wedding, so I'll do whatever I can to keep her attention off of Dr Ferbo and Mr. Mute. That should give you some time to figure things out. Deal?"

Ferb grinned gratefully while Phineas nodded his head vigorously again. "Thank you, Candace," Ferb said.

"Thank me once you figure out how to make him talk again," Candace replied before turning and walking off. "And by _thank me_ I mean going back to the way it's supposed to be. As in _Phineas_ the Chatterbox and _Ferb_the Man of Action."

Phineas and Ferb watched her leave before grinning at each other and running after their sister.


	9. Chapter 9

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE: ***IMPORTANT**** _**_I'm REALLY sorry I didn't update this any sooner guys. And I'm SUPER sorry for not updating Gaining Trust either. I'll be adding at least three chapters to Gaining Trust by next week. I'll post the rest of Vocal Blues today and possibly tomorrow._

* * *

The next day followed through in the same manner as Tuesday; Ferb was able to cover up his brother's muteness from their teachers as well as go over the original blueprints he had made for the Vocal Box. On any normal occasion, there was usually a practice after school for the play _Romeo and Juliet_that Phineas and Ferb's English class were putting together for the end of the year; but since their teacher was gone to care for her daughter until after Christmas, the rehearsals had been postponed until after the break.

Another issue that Ferb had to work around was their daily lunch hour inventing. People began asking them why they had not invented anything the day before and why they had not yet started anything for that day.

"We're… busy rehearsing for this Saturday's Christmas banquet," Ferb had replied—Isabella had told him to say this.

Isabella, Baljeet and Buford decided to play along and helped Ferb out during class to keep Phineas' problem under wraps. The real test came when they had Geography: Mr. Lucas Magnesium, known as the grumpiest teacher in the entire school, had considered the Flynn-Fletcher duo to be a nuisance for several years now. The one he seemed to look down upon the most though, was of course Phineas Flynn. No one knew why, although there were rumours that the school's principal, Mr. Beauregard, knew. All the students were aware of was the man's scorn towards the youngest of the famed blended family on Maple Drive.

Candace, he had loved; Ferb, he had his moments; but Phineas, despite constantly passing his grades with flying colors, never managed to make the man smile.

Phineas normally tried ignoring it. He knew that Mr. Magnesium had an unknown grudge towards him, but he had always continuously tried to be the best student he could be. He always smiled, was always polite, and always raised his hand in order to speak. But never once did he do anything that made the man proud.

Ferb was aware of this, and despite keeping his silence and not talking back to his teachers, there were plenty of times where he frowned at Magnesium when he would snap at Phineas for doing nothing. He knew that the geography teacher favoured Ferb over Phineas, possibly due to the fact that Ferb hardly spoke unless addressed to; Phineas was giddy, energetic and outgoing. Whatever tricks he got away with in other classes, Magnesium only criticized him for.

During this one class, Phineas kept his silence. He did not once make a single noise or movement of any kind. This was only because he had no voice to spare.

Ferb noticed that Magnesium was suspicious, even more so than Candace. The man pointed and asked questions aloud, and while people answered, he eyed Phineas with his dark brown, bone-chillingly cold irises.

The man pointed his ruler at the red-head eventually. "Mr. Flynn!" he called out, catching Phineas' attention. "Considering how _well_ you study—" Ferb noticed the venom in his voice and glared "—Would you mind telling me exactly _where_ the Stonehenge would be located on a map? You like studying different areas and legends—tell me its location, oh Knight in Shining Armour."

Ferb again noticed the venom in his voice—Magnesium often called Phineas names that would describe his personality, although the man often said them with plenty of disdain.

Phineas on the other hand, immediately dove into his sketchbook and tore out another page. He wrote the answer in a black felt marker before holding it up and grinning. Magnesium, however, was not impressed. The greying haired teacher forced up a sour smirk. "Amusing, Phineas, but my eyes aren't as good as they once were; mind _verbally_ giving me your answer?"

At these words, Phineas' grin immediately dissipated and was replaced by a dismayed look.

"Go on, Flynn; speak up unless you want a detention."

Ferb felt like yelling at the man for saying that; ever since they had begun high school, Magnesium used Detention as a threat to his brother. Although Phineas was always confident he would never get stuck in Detention, the thought of having to return home and explain it to his parents worried him. Phineas had never so much as failed a class. The most worrying thing for him about school was returning home and disappointing his mother.

Phineas bit his lip nervously while looking at Ferb for help. Magnesium cleared his throat extremely loudly, catching his attention again. "I am not asking you to speak to _Ferb_, Phineas; I am asking you to _answer my question_. Is it that difficult to do?"

Phineas tried pushing down on an embarrassed flush. He put the note down and stared at it in fear.

"My patience grows thin, Phineas Flynn; what is the answer?"

Phineas looked up at him once more, but to his surprise, Isabella, sitting behind him, stood up on her legs and cleared her throat. "Not meaning to be rude, Mr. Magnesium, but Phineas just _gave_ you his answer," she said in irritation. Crossing her arms, she added, "He's only sitting three rows away from you; your eyesight can't be _that_ bad. You don't even wear any glasses."

The rest of the class seemed to agree with her. When Ferb looked up at his teacher, a small grin spread over his lips as he watched the man look on in speechlessness. Magnesium blinked several times and cleared his throat before straightening out. Pushing back his slightly messy hair, he raised his chin and turned away. "… Correct as usual, Mr. Flynn," he muttered silently.

Isabella beamed proudly as her girlfriends quietly congratulated her. Ferb watched her take her seat again before looking over at his brother.

Phineas had his head low and his eyes staring almost disappointingly at his notebook. With a weak sigh, he picked up his pencil again and continued taking notes, not once looking up at Ferb.

Ferb found this to be a little odd, but he did not dwell upon it.

* * *

"What a bully," Baljeet said as he put his books away at lunch hour. "I cannot believe Mr. Magnesium despises Phineas that much. I mean, he does not even _do_anything."

"He hates everyone," Buford replied as he folded his arms behind his back. He and Isabella waited patiently for the other three to finish putting their things away. He watched students walk about while talking excitedly about the upcoming banquet and Christmas vacation. "Hey, quick question, guys," the football player spoke up again. "What songs are we supposed to be singing Saturday?"

"Phineas and I are _supposed _to be singing a duet, that much I know," Isabella replied with a shrug. "But that all depends on whether he gets his voice back by then or not."

"Are we not singing _Run Rudolph Run_ as well?" Baljeet wondered.

Buford sighed as Phineas and Ferb closed their lockers and turned around to face their friends. "Geez! It's Wednesday already and we still look pretty much screwed for Saturday night," he said. "We are _so_not going to get everything done in time."

"Sure we will," Isabella said cheerfully while grinning. "We just have to keep our hopes up! We've been through worse!"

"Yes, but not _mute Phineas_ worse," Baljeet pointed out. "He _is_ the lead singer, Isa. We cannot just switch him around with someone."

There was a moment of silence before Buford chuckled softly and crossed his arms. "But you know, I still think it sounds good," he said. When the others looked at him in curiosity, he added, with a smirk, "I was actually able to concentrate in our classes today. Not bad. And I didn't hear any alarm go off in gym, either. You know, the last time? When the badminton birdie got stuck up in the rafters?"

Baljeet made an odd noise, as though attempting not to let out a laugh, and immediately covered his mouth. Isabella, Phineas and Ferb only continued to stare at him in confusion.

"Oh, come on," Buford teased. "No alarms? No squeaks? No squeals? I can't be the only one who noticed the difference today. I was even able to read a page of our Science textbook in spare today… None of those dorky songs playing live either… when I heard the teacher accidentally drop one of her pins from her desk, I actually freaked out…"

Although a few of his words still made no sense, Isabella did understand a bit of them, and immediately stifled a giggle like Baljeet. Even Ferb covered his mouth and grinned.

"No dancing either," Buford added as the other three began to chuckle some more. "Like in English, and no drama king, or dorky pun. I mean, the lightbulb bit yesterday was bad enough without any sound effects, but hey, at least there wasn't any _verbal_ joke that went along with it." He laughed and waved his arms about. "Oh, yeah! And how about the entrances into Mr. Magnesium's classroom? Haha! Someone actually freaked out when it didn't happen today!"

Buford's words were still slightly confusing, but the way he acted things out was enough for Ferb, Baljeet and Isabella to laugh. Buford swung his hips around and spoke familiar puns and lines such as "circuitly not least" and "how serendipitous." The manner in which he spoke "I know what we're gonna do today" nearly caused Baljeet to double over in laughter.

Ferb tried to tame his shoulders as they moved up and down with his soft laughs. After several minutes of watching Buford act ridiculously, the English-born student cleared his throat while holding up a roll of paper. "As much as your acting is _slightly_ enjoyable," he began, "I do need to get back to the matter at hand and take a look at these blue prints for the Vocal Box. If I want to get this over with before Saturday, it's best to start now." He turned to look at his best friend. "Phineas, are you—!"

But Ferb quickly stopped speaking, for he was addressing his words to an empty space: Phineas was no longer standing next to him. In fact, there was no sign of Phineas anywhere.

Ferb looked about in confusion just as the others began questioning the tinkerer's whereabouts. "Phineas?" Isabella called out.

"Where did he go?" Baljeet added while scratching his head.

Ferb searched the hallways around them once more until a movement at the end of the one to his right caught his attention. At the very end, he could just see one of the side exit doors of the school finish closing. An orange-striped scarf seemed to flutter out of the window frame and disappeared from view almost instantly.

Ferb gasped softly.

"One thing's for sure," Buford said, though he and the others did not notice what Ferb had just seen; "He sure uses his muteness to his advantage."

His words nearly went unheard by the builder. Ferb felt his heart suddenly crash in the pit of his stomach when he realized what had just happened, and who may have taken the conversation too literally. "Oh, no," he whispered worriedly. Without any explanation to his friends, Ferb opened his locker again and grabbed his black leather jacket. Slamming his locker shut with a crisp _bang_, he immediately dashed off down the hallway his brother had taken. "Phineas! Phineas, come back!" he called out.

Isabella, Buford and Baljeet watched him leave in silence until the Hindi student punched the football player in the shoulder. "Way to go, Buford!" he snapped while his companion groaned in pain. "Look at what you just did! You just made fun of our band's lead singer!"

Buford glared at him while he rubbed his shoulder. "Hey, you guys laughed too, sheesh!" he replied. "And it's not like I seriously meant it! I mean, come on! Since when does Dinner Bell take anything _I_ say seriously anyway?"

While the two of them began to bicker, Isabella continued to watch Ferb run down the hallway until he pushed the exit doors wide open and left the school. Concern and even shame filled her heart, and while Baljeet and Buford were busy arguing, she ran off to her locker to get her own jacket.

* * *

Ferb ran around the high school nearly twice before Isabella caught up with him and offered her assistance in finding Phineas. Snow was falling from the sky above, and it had been since early that morning, which made walking through the stuff with runners almost unbearable.

The schoolyard was incredibly big, despite being a school in the middle of the city of Danville. Football was an important sport for that school, and so there was a football field as well as space for several other sports. There were three basketball courts near the backdoors, picnic tables and even a few swings and teeter-totters for the teenagers who felt like doing something while sitting. Phineas often enjoyed eating lunch on the swings or the teeter-totters when it was warm enough because he claimed it helped him think up creative ideas for inventions. The more fun you had thinking, the better the outcome.

It took Ferb and Isabella several minutes before finally finding the red-head. Phineas was sitting just outside the football field on a plank of wood that had helped designate the out-of bounds areas. There were currently a few students outside in the field, throwing snowballs at each other and having fun in the fresh snow. As Ferb and Isabella approached Phineas from behind, it almost seemed as though he inventor was observing them.

But Ferb knew that Phineas was not doing anything of the sort. If he was doing anything, it was probably thinking over certain things.

The two of them stopped a few feet away from Phineas and waited to see if he would perhaps turn around. When he did not, Isabella took a step forward. But Ferb quickly yet gently raised a hand and placed it on his neighbour's shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. He shook his head, indicating that he should be the one to speak, and once Isabella nodded her accord, Ferb released his hand from her and walked over to his brother.

Phineas turned his head only for a split-second before quickly turning it away again, but even this had been enough for Ferb to notice his best friend's expression—and it was not an expression he enjoyed seeing on the inventor's face: there was a furious frown spread over Phineas' brow, his eyes were as cold as ice, and his nose was wrinkled in disdain.

Ferb stared at him silently for a moment before clearing his throat. "Um, Phineas?" he began softly.

Phineas did not look at him. He only turned the rest of his body in the same direction as his head.

Ferb sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, you're not cold out here without your toque?" he wondered.

Again, his brother did not turn his head.

Ferb remained silent a moment longer before lowering his arm. "Are… you alright?" he asked, almost hesitating.

At these words, Phineas finally turned around; but when he looked up at his brother, he only scowled silently. His nose wrinkled even more and his eyes shot flames of anger at the green-haired sixteen-year-old. Ferb was nearly taken aback by this. He only stared back at Phineas in silence until the red-head turned his gaze away again. With another sigh, Ferb rubbed his left arm. "Um, I suspect you're, uh… mad?" he muttered.

Phineas did not turn around, but he did pull out his sketch book. After furiously writing down a note on one of the pages, he tore out the paper and handed it over to Ferb from over his head.

Ferb grabbed the note from him and looked at it:

_What do_ YOU _think? _

Ferb attempted to laugh very weakly and nervously. "Ah," he said while crumpling the note and placing it in his pocket. "Uh, did you, uh, want to talk about it?" He tried not to sound like he was patronizing his brother—he knew Phineas would not be too pleased to be treated that way.

Again, Phineas did not turn around but he did write down on another paper. It took a little longer than the other messages, but once he had finished, he tore it out and raised it over his head.

Ferb grabbed it again and stared at the message. It was a quick doodle of Phineas sticking his tongue out at him. Like he had on currently, his little cartoon persona was wearing an exaggerated glare.

Ferb finally rolled his eyes tiredly and crumpled the paper up. "Oh, come off it, Phineas!" he groaned. "It's Buford! Buford says stupid things like that without thinking, for goodness sake! It's never bothered you before; why are you suddenly taking this so seriously?"

Phineas remained immobile for a moment afterwards until he finally began to write something down again. Once he had finished, he handed Ferb the entire sketchbook over and crossed his arms, back still facing Ferb.

Ferb stared at him in silence before looking down at the note. Immediately, shame weighed down on his heart as his frown dissipated:

_If you actually cared, you wouldn't have just stood there while he made fun of me. _

_Oh_, Ferb thought as he closed the sketchbook. _It's not Buford he's angry with; it's _me.

He held his brother's project book in his hands for several seconds before finally sighing and walking around the piece of wood. Just as he was sitting down next to his brother, Phineas scooted over a great deal and turned away as much as he could while crossing his arms. Ferb leaned over his legs, wondering how he should start speaking; he had never as much made Phineas upset before, never mind disappointed. Phineas had always been proud of who Ferb was. But now, he was not only disappointed with Ferb, but he was also furious for his carelessness.

_He probably feels more defenseless without his voice_, Ferb thought. _That's why he looked disturbed yesterday when Buford teased him and then today when Isabella stood up for him in Mr. Magnesium's class… He was expecting his own_ brother _to do the defending. _

Ferb drummed his fingers over the sketchbook before turning his head and looking at Phineas again. "Would it help if I apologized?" he asked.

Without turning his head, Phineas shook it firmly. His red locks of hair swayed with the movement. Ferb knew that this would be the response he would get. He was quite certain that he'd be just as angry with Phineas if the red-head had done the same thing. Ferb looked down at his brother's project book before pulling out the small pencil he normally kept inside his jacket, just in case Phineas needed an extra. He opened the book and wrote a note on a blank page. _I really am sorry, Phin_. When he finished, he handed the book over to his brother.

Phineas took the sketchbook back and seemed to read the note; but instead of writing one back, he turned around, glared furiously at his best friend and, raising the book in the air, swatted Ferb across the head in the same manner he had done so when the builder had insisted on visiting Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Ferb groaned painfully and rubbed his scalp while wincing. Behind them, Isabella covered her mouth in surprise and recoiled.

Phineas pulled the book back towards him, shot another enraged scowl and then turned away again while crossing his arms. Ferb finished rubbing his scalp before finally deciding to be as firm as he could without sounding upset. "Phineas, I _do_ care about you," he said. "I've cared about you since the beginning. Why else would I tolerate you when you go on your energetic rants about—!"

To his complete shock, Phineas turned around again and raised his sketchbook up while baring his clenched teeth, threatening to slap Ferb again. The green-haired teenager immediately recoiled in fright and raised his arms protectively before him. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean it like that, Phineas!" Ferb apologized sincerely.

Phineas put his arm down and tossed his sketchbook to the ground before he turned away again. Ferb watch him do so, a little hurt to see him toss it aside as though it was nothing. That sketchbook had always meant the world to Phineas, and if it took a bit of carelessness on the builder's half to turn it into nothing but a plain old book, then Ferb felt even more ashamed.

After reaching down and picking the book up, Ferb leaned a little towards his brother. As though it had never existed, Phineas' frown was no longer present over his brow. Instead, Ferb saw expressions of great pain and sadness. Never having been good at scowling for long, Phineas now stared at the school yard with hurt written all over his face. Tears filled his eyes as he tried to blink them back, and he tightened his lips together in order to keep his chin from trembling too much.

Ferb felt even worse when he saw his brother begin to break down because of his actions. He inched closer until he was sitting perhaps an inch or two away from Phineas. Placing his hands together and clearing his throat, Ferb stared at the snow beneath his feet. "Phineas…" he began very softly. He tried finding the right words to say without hurting his brother even more. "Phineas, it is true that you… you _do _talk a lot sometimes…" He waited for his brother to hit him again, but when Phineas never did anything of the sort, Ferb sat up straight again and looked at him. "… But," he continued, "If I really didn't care, if I really didn't want to hear you speak anymore… Then would I honestly be helping you get your voice back?"

There was a moment of silence for several seconds. The breeze played with their hair and all that could be heard were the students that were laughing in the football field nearby. Isabella placed her hands together before her and waited as patiently as she could to see what her friend would say.

Ferb was just about to believe that Phineas would never reply when the red-head finally made a movement. Inch by inch at first, Phineas began to slowly turn his head, stopping it at least three times as though thinking twice about it. Eventually, he did turn it completely, as well as redirect his legs in the same direction as his head. Phineas stared at the ground for a second or two before raising his dark blue eyes and looking at Ferb. For a moment, he remained in that position, until he weakly shook his head.

Ferb felt a wave of relief sweep over him when Phineas did so. Grinning weakly, Ferb placed an arm around his brother's shoulders and held out Phineas' sketchbook. "Then, why don't we go take a look at those blueprints and see if we can figure out how to reverse the box' effect?" he asked quietly.

Phineas looked at the sketchbook and then slowly reached out to grab it. Holding it closely as though it had suddenly become a rare jewel, he raised his eyes again. He looked at Ferb for a moment before raising his left hand and gently rubbing the area on his brother's head where he had hit him earlier.

Ferb chuckled softly before moving Phineas' hand away. "That's alright, I deserved it that time," he replied.

Phineas pulled his hand away and then finally smiled weakly in reply. Ferb patted his brother's back before standing up. "We still have a good half hour before classes start," he announced with a sigh. Looking at Isabella while Phineas rose to his feet, Ferb added, "Did you want to help or did you want to give Buford a piece of your mind?"

Isabella smiled in reply. "I think Baljeet's doing a fine job right about now," she replied. "Though by the time we get back to the school, I may need to go pull him out of his locker again. So for now, I'll just help you out."

Ferb looked at Phineas when the red-head pulled on one end of his scarf and pretended to hang himself. Isabella laughed at the expression until Ferb playfully pushed his brother aside. "Last I checked, you fit nicely in your locker as well," he teased.


	10. Chapter 10

The rest of the day went by just as the morning had; slowly and silently. Like the day before, Ferb found nothing in his blueprints that could be of any use to them. Everything seemed to be working perfectly fine; the only thing that indicated that something was wrong was the fact that Phineas was still mute.

Arriving at home, the boys found that Candace had indeed come over to discuss things about the wedding with her mother. Linda greeted her sons upon their entrance; Candace simply smiled in reply. Phineas cheerfully waved back at his sister before Ferb led him up stairs to do their homework. Afterwards, before dinner, they would take a look at the Vocal Box again.

Perry was in their room already when the boys entered. They did not ask him how the daily mission went; they already knew that Perry would have been victorious again. So while the platypus continued to sleep soundly at the end of Ferb's bed, the Flynn-Fletcher brothers set to the task of completing their homework.

Once that was through, Ferb took out his invention.

Sitting cross legged on his brother's bed, Ferb punched in a code he had written in a small booklet and held the device up to his brother. "Okay; try it this time," the English-born sixteen-year-old suggested.

Phineas stared at the metal box in silence before taking a deep breath and opening his mouth in order to speak. However, just like the last three times, words did not emanate from him; instead came more noise.

_Cokadoodle dooooo!_

Phineas immediately smacked a hand over his mouth and blushed in embarrassment, just as Perry raised his head in surprise at the noise of a chicken.

"Hm…" Ferb muttered while rubbing his chin. "Okaay, that one doesn't work either." He punched in another code and held the device up again. "Try this one."

Phineas slowly uncovered his mouth while staring uneasily at the device. Just as before, he opened his mouth to speak.

_Heeehan, heeehan! _

Ferb had difficulty keeping a straight face at that one. Phineas covered his mouth with both hands as his face turned an ever darker shade of red. "L-let's try this one," Ferb said after punching in another code. They repeated the same procedure until Phineas opened his mouth again.

_Oo-oo-AH-AH-AH-AAAH! _

This time, Perry was the one who could not keep quiet. The platypus immediately turned over onto his back and chattered loudly while kicking his webbed feet up in the air. Phineas and Ferb stared at him as the animal continued to laugh hysterically; then, the red-head shot a furious glare at his stepbrother.

"Don't look at me like that; _I'm_ just trying to find your voice again!" Ferb argued. "We've only gone through six of these codes, Phineas; we need to go through _all_of them in order to figure out if your voice accidentally recorded in one!"

Phineas opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out was another monkey howl. This only made Perry laugh even harder than before. Finally irritated by his pet's amusement, Phineas grabbed his pillow and tossed it at the platypus. Perry squawked in surprise and stood up on all fours in order to jump off of the bed.

Ferb sighed and passed a hand over his face. "Phineas, I know this is difficult for you, but right now, it's all I can do," he said. "Just… bear with me, alright?"

Phineas stared at him in silence before sighing and nodding his head. Ferb held up the device once he had punched in another code. Then, Phineas attempted to speak again.

_Miaou_! Phineas placed two fingers over his mouth at this one before looking at his brother.

Ferb was already chuckling. "Cat got your tongue?" he teased. Phineas only playfully pushed him over before trying out another code.

_Woof! Woof! _

"And now you're barking up the wrong tree." Ferb honestly could no longer help it. Even Perry had begun to laugh again.

Phineas waved his arms about madly, as though insisting to continue the experiment.

_Beep, Beep_! Phineas recoiled at this one before staring tediously at his brother while raising en eyebrow.

"What?" Ferb replied with another giggle. "It _could_be useful if you were stuck in traffic."

Phineas rolled his eyes before grabbing his sketchbook and writing a note down. He held it up so that his brother could read it.

_Next time you want to invent something, run it by me for approval. _

Ferb punched in another code while chuckling. "Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "Okay, try this one…"

The sound of an exotic bird. The sound of a squirrel. The sound of a train whistle. The sound of a fog horn. They went through nearly every sound Phineas and Ferb could think of, but none of them were the one they were searching for.

None of them were Phineas' voice.

"It's _got_ to be in here _somewhere_," Ferb groaned, punching in another code. He held it up to his brother again. "Let's try this one."

Phineas took a deep breath and opened his mouth, but just as he was about to speak, there came a knock on their bedroom door. Phineas, Ferb and Perry looked up in shock before the platypus resumed his mindless animal state. Then, Ferb quickly hid the Vocal Box behind his back. "Uuuhh, come in," he called out.

The doorknob turned and in peeked Candace, much to the boys' relief. "Hey, how's the voice search coming along?" she wondered.

Phineas and Ferb looked at her in silence until the red-head opened his mouth to speak again. _MOOOOOOOOOOOO_! He immediately slapped a hand back over his mouth, just as Ferb threw his head back and laughed hysterically.

Candace choked on a laugh and covered her mouth as her biological brother blushed. "Okay, obviously you haven't found it yet," she said through a giggle.

Ferb wiped a tear from his eye. "We're coming along slowly," he said through one final laugh. After clearing his throat, he resumed seriousness. "However, I haven't figured out where his voice could have gone yet. We've been through nearly one quarter of the sounds already, but still, nothing." He punched in another code and held it up to his brother. "Try again."

But this time, Phineas shook his head vigorously. Ferb insisted, but again, his brother refused. Just as Ferb was about to ask why, Phineas pointed at his sister.

Candace rolled her eyes. "Oh, lighten up, Phin, I promised I'd help keep it under wraps," she said. Looking at Ferb once more, she added, "Better figure it out soon, though; Mom told me that she feels like you guys are hiding something. I _told_you she wasn't that dumb."

Ferb muttered something inaudible before holding the box up to his brother again. "I'm confident we'll get it all sorted out before Saturday," he said. "At least, that's what I'm hoping."

"How did school go today?"

"Ugh; don't ask. Not only was it difficult to hide his muteness, but Mr. Magnesium still can't stand him, and Buford was acting like a jerk… Try it again Phineas."

Phineas opened his mouth and let out the sound of crickets.

"Ooookay, that wasn't it either."

Candace watched as Ferb punched in another code. "Nothing else happened?" she wondered.

Ferb held up the device again. "Well, I _did_act a bit careless and Phineas got upset about it…"

"You two had an _argument_? Since when does that happen?"

"Hardly. But it was entirely of my doing, so I was in the wrong. We were able to make amends though and I'm sure it won't happen again… Isn't that right, Phineas?"

Phineas opened his mouth to reply; this time, out came the sound of a platypus. _Grrrrrr_. Phineas recoiled at this one.

"_Grrrrrr_," Perry replied absentmindedly, catching their attention.

Phineas stared at him for a moment before grinning brightly and looking at Ferb. He pointed at his throat and nodded.

Ferb raised an eyebrow while Candace giggled. "Uh, _I_ don't think so, Phineas," the builder replied sardonically. "I'm not building inventions for a platypus, and if you think I'm willing to tolerate _that_chatter constantly, think again."

Phineas chattered again but smiled amusingly as he did. Ferb punched in another code and held the box up.

"If you were wondering if Perry went out today at all, he didn't," Candace announced, catching the boys' attention. "He went out around nine, but he was back by noon."

Phineas and Ferb stared at her in silence before looking curiously at their pet platypus. Perry only eyeballed them mindlessly.

"That's odd," Ferb muttered. "I wonder why he came back so soon…" He held the Vocal Box up to Phineas again.

The red-head leaned towards the invention and opened his mouth. "_Luke, I am your father_." He closed his mouth immediately and stared in shock at his brother. Candace had already burst into laughter.

"How in the world did _that_one get on there?" Ferb muttered curiously as he tipped the box over and looked at it curiously.

Phineas, however, was already amused. He pointed at Ferb, taking his brother by surprise and frowned. _"The force is strong in this one_," he said.

"Okay, knock it off, Sith Lord," Ferb replied while swatting his brother's hand out of the way. "I think we're nearly done for today," the green-haired teenager sighed while punching in another code. "We'll try a few more and stop until tomorrow…"

"Is Phineas going to be stuck with the last sound as a voice?" Candace wondered. "Because I _don't_ think Mom _won't_notice that."

"I've got a code to delete the previous sound and return the voice to normal—in this case, it's to make him mute again… But until then, I may as well just try a few more until dinner is ready. Maybe I have another singer's voice recorded on this somewhere… Like Jeret Reddick or something…" He giggled. "Then Phineas could have an even _better_sounding voice when he sang…" He looked up at Phineas while holding the device up again. "How does that sound Phineas?"

Phineas stared flatly at him before grabbing the Vocal Box and punching in a code they had used earlier. Clearing his throat, he took a deep breath and then opened his mouth wide. Out emanated the loud moan of a fog horn, which was enough to startle Ferb and knock him backwards off of the bed.

Candace threw her head back and laughed. "I'll take it that means 'in your dreams, Turbo Ferbo'!" she exclaimed.

Phineas smiled proudly and looked at his brother. Ferb sat up and straightened out his hair while narrowing his eyes and looking at Phineas. "A shake of the head would have sufficed," he said with an amused grin.


	11. Chapter 11

Candace stayed for dinner that night. On any normal occasion, Perry would have come down and ate on the floor near the table, just as he always did. He would pretend to be mindless but listened to the conversations the Flynn-Fletcher family had. With his family, the conversations were often interesting.

This time, however, he did not come down to dinner.

While the family was busy talking about that day's events, Perry was upstairs in Phineas and Ferb's room, sitting down at the boys' computer. It was not often that he punched in the password without his owners' consent—Ferb had not been too pleased to learn that his pet platypus had decoded it. Considering Perry had a secret lair beneath the house, he hardly if ever used Phineas and Ferb's.

But today was different. He had no time to go down to the lair and reactivate the entire computer system. It was urgent that he got the issue resolved immediately.

There was a reason why he had not been gone the entire day. As usual, he was given an assignment by the OWCA; Doofenshmirtz had gone and built another _inator_in revenge for something his brother Roger had done again. But when Perry had arrived at the doctor's lair, he found…

_…nothing. _

And when he meant nothing, he meant _absolutely nothing. _

No inator, no trap, no… no _Doof_. Sure, his things were still there, and his lab looked exactly like it had the day before. But there was a stunning lack of evil contraption and evil scientist.

And not a single attack on Roger Doofenshmirtz.

Perry did a full-scale search by satellite link for the doctor, but nothing showed up. His actions since the beginning of the week had begun to worry the secret agent. He had continuously gotten the feeling that the contraptions he was ordered to destroy had only been decoys. Doof was up to something bigger this time, but Perry had no idea what it was about.

_I did a global search for him twice but still nothing_, he typed onto the computer with a frown. _It's beginning to worry me; Dr. Doofenshmirtz never does this kind of thing. He's not smart enough to. _

_… Obviously, he is, if he's actually managing to hide something from you, P_, came the reply after a moment or two. Perry was currently chatting with Pinky, the dog from across the street. Like Perry, Pinky was also a secret agent for another branch of the OWCA. He had his own nemesis to worry about, although she did not cause nearly as much trouble as Perry's did. Because the two were neighbours, they often shared information when the time seemed fitting.

_Not to mention you did a_ global _search?_ Pinky added. _Wow, Perry; that's intense. Do you think he would have gotten that far in one day? _

Perry frowned. _Are you kidding me? He can build a new machine overnight. If he can do that, then how can he_ not _travel around the globe in a single day? _

_Fine, so he's amazingly good at going from one place to another… If you can't find him, and he's not causing trouble yet, P, just relax, okay? You're off duty, so just lay low and enjoy the time you've got off_. Pinky paused here before typing again. _Btw; how's your kid's Vocal Blues issue coming along? I heard Isabella mention something about… uh, keeping his voice in tune for Saturday night? _

Perry rolled his eyes. _That was a cover up_, he replied.

_Okay… for what? _

_… Phineas has sort of gone mute. _

_ARE. YOU. SERIOUS? Omg, no way; I can't picture that kid without a voice, man! That's just… that's just weird! The house must be so quiet without him chattering constantly!_

Perry growled as he typed his response. _Keep your comments about my Kid to yourself, Pinky_, he typed. _Phineas may be a chatterbox, but he's still my owner. So unless you want me to number the faults of Isabella, I'd keep my trap shut. _

He could just picture the Chihuahua shrugging apologetically. _Okay, okay, I'm sorry_, he replied. _I didn't mean it in a bad way, Perry. I was just… you know, sayin'… Anyway, I should be getting off of Izzie's laptop. She went out with her parents for dinner tonight, and I kinda don't want her coming back seeing her dog typing like a genius. Gotta keep a cover, right_?

Perry did not reply. He only rolled his eyes in amusement.

_Oh, wait; you don't have that problem anymore. Your owners know about your identity… Lucky butt. It must be nice not needing to act stupid twenty-four-seven around the entire family now, huh? _

Perry scoffed before typing his reply. _Are you kidding me? Phineas still gets a crack out of how fast I can hide my fedora_, he said. _Not to mention he likes to sneak into my lair whenever I'm not around. He and Ferb are good kids, but they're_ way _too curious for their own good sometimes. _

_Haha! Downfall of being owned by a pair of boys, hee hee! _

_Oh, cannit, Mutt. _

The sound of the people climbing the stairs caught Perry's attention. He looked up in surprise before hastily typing on the keyboard. _Gotta go, Pinky; I need to log off or else Ferb will get upset that I used the password again_, he said.

Pinky immediately wrote back. _That's why you have a lair, ding-dong. _

_Snap it. _

_Hee hee! Okay, okay. Later, P. _

Perry quickly closed the window and got off of the internet. Just as he had logged out from the computer, the door to the bedroom opened and in walked the platypus' owners. Phineas looked over at Perry quickly before widening his eyes and pretending to slice his throat with his hand. He then nodded towards the hallway, just as Ferb entered the room behind him.

Perry immediately recognized this sign and leaped to the floor. Getting down on all fours, he took upon the look of a mindless animal before chattering and walking over to the red-head.

Sure enough, Lawrence and Linda walked into the room behind their sons. "… Anyway, if you boys want to have your friends over to practice on Friday, then make sure not to make the house rattle again, okay?" the woman said as Phineas reached down from his bed and picked up his platypus. "Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro will be over for some tea, and I don't want you to break another one of my vases."

Both boys nodded simultaneously. Perry chattered in response.

Linda looked at the platypus for a moment before walking over and placing her hands on Phineas' cheeks. "Why don't you say something, Sweetie?" she asked, almost sounding desperate. She rubbed noses with him. "I miss hearing your beautiful voice in this house. Why don't you say something for me, hm?"

Phineas stared at her in silence before smiling pitifully. Slowly, he shook his head.

"Once Saturday is here, you'll hear his voice again, Mum," Ferb replied. "… Guaranteed."

Linda and Lawrence looked at him in silence for a moment before the woman sighed and kissed her youngest son's forehead. "Okay, but I want to hear him say something for a _long_time after that," she muttered.

Lawrence rubbed Phineas' head. "You hear that, Phin?" he said with a grin. "We actually miss hearing you talk about things. Not everyone thinks it's irritating."

Phineas seemed to try and smile gratefully, but Perry noticed the sadness behind it.

The boys' parents left the room while announcing that curfew was at ten thirty. Ferb got up and closed the door behind them before turning around and looking pitifully at his stepbrother. Perry ceased being mindless and looked up at the red-head as well. Phineas' forced smile had disappeared now, and his eyes had glazed over. Setting the platypus aside, he kicked off his shoes and lay down on his bed while staring up at the ceiling. He seemed to be fighting to keep his chin from trembling.

"Did you… want to try a little more with the Vocal Box, Phineas?" Ferb asked, almost reluctantly.

Phineas sighed heavily before turning onto his stomach and burying his face between his crossed arms and his pillow. He shook his head.

"Cheer up; we'll get your voice back soon. I promise."

Again, Phineas only shook his head. Perry was unsure if this was because he did not believe his brother's words, or if because he just felt like doing so again. Worriedly, Perry stared at him a moment longer before looking at Ferb again. Ferb seemed to be thinking the same thing as the platypus:

If his promise did not follow through, they would have to come clean with their parents about Phineas' muteness.

Or, in Candace's words, _bust themselves. _


	12. Chapter 12

Thursday followed in the same manner as Wednesday, and Friday the same as Thursday. The only difference was when Isabella, Baljeet and Buford came over to practice the few songs they would be playing for the Christmas Banquet the following evening.

Buford played on the drum set Phineas and Ferb had in their basement. It had once belonged to Phineas' biological father, Francis Flynn, who had once played the instrument when he was still alive. Vague memories of listening to him bang the symbols still floated about in Phineas' mind, but despite Ferb's ability to teach him how to play the set, the red-head would rather play the guitar or another instrument. The only time Buford played something other than the drums or his acoustic guitar was when he would be playing his saxophone for _Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree._

Baljeet played his keyboard for most of the practice, although he did exchange it for his electric guitar at one point. Isabella played the keyboard in one song and shook a tambourine in a few others. She knew how to play a guitar quite well, but enjoyed singing without one. The only time, in fact, that she would be playing the guitar in the line up Saturday night was when all five of them were supposed to pull out their acoustic guitars and sing _Silent Night._

Ferb played the instruments he had told Jeremy on Tuesday night that he would be playing: the bass guitar, the piano, and of course, his harmonica. He could play a wide variety of instruments as well, but those were the only three he intended to play in most songs, save Phineas and Isabella's duet, as well as _Silent Night._

Phineas was supposed to be playing both of his guitars, the drums for _Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree_, and his violin for a song Isabella would be singing.

He was also… supposed to be singing lead for _most_of the songs. But because of his lack of voice, they had to practice each song without any lead vocals; only backups.

By an hour and a half of practice, Phineas set his instruments aside and wrote a note to Ferb before walking up the stairs gloomily: _Practice without me; it's too depressing to be here without a voice_, his note had said.

But practicing was not the same without him, so shortly afterwards, Isabella, Buford and Baljeet left.

Right after practice, the boys locked themselves in their room and began playing around with the sounds Ferb had recorded on his Vocal Box again. Candace called Ferb on his cellphone only once that evening, to see how the search for Phineas' voice was going. But like Wednesday and Thursday, they had no luck in locating Phineas' lost voice.

Dinner was silent. Awkwardly silent.

Ferb lay awake in bed that night, staring at the ceiling above while rapping his fingers against his chest. When they were six years old, Phineas and Ferb had stuck glowing stars against the ceiling in various areas. They were still glowing dimly in the dark at that hour.

The stars reminded Ferb of all the things he and his brother had done since they first met. He grinned weakly at the thought: Ferb had flown to Danville, USA, with his father, at the age of three, in order to search for an apartment to live in. Shortly after the divorce with his ex-wife Charlene, Lawrence had considered the idea of moving to the United States of America. He had heard that job opportunities were easier to come by there, and it would give his son a fresh start from the divorce. At first, Lawrence had gone alone, mostly on business trips. Ferb had to stay behind with his grandparents. He had not been pleased to see his father leave so often, but he never complained verbally.

Ferb could still remember how he had felt back then; he had become silent because of his realization that his biological mother did not love him. Her lack of love and care caused Ferb to push away the world, except for his father and his loving Fletcher grandparents. As far as Ferb was concerned at that age, love was just a bedtime story. He could only receive it from the three people he knew his entire life, and that was all. No one else could ever love someone like him; someone as intelligent as Ferb Fletcher.

After a few months, Lawrence decided to take Ferb with him; for a while now, Ferb had known that his father was seeing another woman. Apparently, she was very lovely and had two children of her own. At first, Ferb did not relish the idea of having to share his father with someone else, especially if it had to be another woman. Although he desperately wanted to have a mother who could love him properly, he had also believed that it could never be, and that any other woman would only end up doing the same thing to his father as Charlene had done.

At first, Ferb had not wanted to go to America. He did not want his father to move them there. He said it was a trap, and that the lady would hurt him the same way Charlene did. But Lawrence disagreed, and Ferb found himself on a plane to the USA, in order to home-shop with his father.

Ferb still found it ironic that he had refused to speak to anyone while there. When Lawrence introduced him to some antique dealers, Ferb did not reply, nor did he wave. He did not even smile.

Nothing good could come of America. And certainly not from this other woman.

Ferb continued to believe that… until he met Linda Flynn's children.

Candace was a pretty eight-year-old. She wore a red dress with white shoes. Her red hair was incredibly silky looking. Her dark blue eyes were friendly and cheerful, but had a hint of stubbornness and independence in them. She was not shy and she was certainly a proud girl.

Ferb had been slightly intimidated by her at first, but that quickly disappeared when the girl smiled warmly at him and introduced herself. "_I'm Candace. Nice to meet you, Ferb_." No girl had ever spoken that nicely to him before.

Then came Candace's little brother. Her three-year-old brother.

_"Hiya! My name's Phineas! Phineas Flynn! What's your name?" _

Ferb chuckled softly at the memory. When he first met Phineas, he was, to be quite frank, afraid of him. Despite being only a few months his junior, Phineas was full of energy and spunk. He spoke loudly and in full sentences, despite being only three years old. His speech had developed faster than his wobbly legs. _He_told the world that he was not afraid of anything.

_"Didja wanna come play wif me in my backyard? Didja? I gots a huuuuugge tree there! An' some toys_!" When Ferb had hardly uttered a "Yes" in reply, he was pulled by the arm across the house by Phineas and introduced to the boy's backyard.

Phineas chattered on about how big his yard was and all the places he had gone to in it. He claimed to have the wildest imagination in the world, or so said his big sister. He had a _pet platypus_. That alone was enough to intrigue Ferb. Whatever fear and intimidation Ferb had felt towards this fiery red-head slowly dissipated the more Phineas told him of the things he wanted to do. By the end of what seemed back then to be a whole day, Ferb discovered that Phineas loved the very same things he did.

_"My daddy was an 'ventor. I wanna grow up to be one jes like him one day… But I ain't no good at buildin' fings. Candy says that I do it too fast, so my ideas never work. I can draw really good, but I'm no good at building. At least not alone…"_

_"… I… I like to build." _

It was the first time Ferb had spoken to him. And those words sealed their friendship forever.

The more they spent time together, thinking up ideas, the more Ferb loved hearing everything Phineas said. His voice had kindness and caring in it, but stubbornness and leadership as well. He was at once serious and hilarious. It was the first day Ferb laughed as hard as he could. It was the first day he had run around pretending to be an airplane without caring if he looked ridiculous. It was the first time he spoke so fervently about inventing.

Phineas made inventing a possibility for a toddler.

When that day ended, and Lawrence stated that they had to go in order to wake up early the next morning and catch their plane back to London, it was the very first time Ferb refused. He actually begged his father to let him stay. To let him stay in Danville.

_"I want to stay here! Can't you go home and then come back and get me later?" _

_"Ferb, London is a several hour flight away. We'll come back in a few months when it's time to move…"_

_"No! No, I want to stay here! I want to stay here with Phineas! Please let me stay, Father! Please let me staaayyyy!" _

Phineas had begged his mother to keep Ferb as well. Lawrence had to literally drag Ferb out of the house when it was time to leave. Phineas made to run after him, but Linda had to hold him back. Even before Ferb had entered the taxi, both boys had burst to tears.

Phineas made life vibrant and fascinating. He made it an adventure. He made impossible things possible. And the very first thing that Ferb loved most about his stepbrother, even before they had become an official family, was his voice.

Phineas' high pitched, energetic yet ever friendly voice.

Ferb heaved a sigh before turning his head to the left and looking at his brother. Phineas was sleeping on his side, back facing Ferb, with his covers up to his neck. His soft breathing made his upper body rise slightly with every breath before dropping again. Perry was sleeping next to him, or at least until it was time to switch beds and sleep with Ferb.

_We've nearly searched the entire book of codes that I made for the Vocal Box, and still no sign or sound Phineas' voice_, he thought, turning his eyes up to the ceiling again. _I don't understand; Phineas_ couldn't _have pushed_ every _code. He already showed me on Monday which ones he pressed. We even tried the one that made him mute. But still nothing? There must be something more, some extra step that I should be taking. Maybe to bring a voice back I need to do something more. But if I do, what is that step? What-must-I-do? _

Phineas shifted his legs in his bed before opening his mouth wide and inhaling silently to yawn. Once he had, he closed his mouth again, turned over until he was facing Ferb's bed, and continued to sleep.

Ferb watched him do so before sighing and turning over onto his side as well. _Tomorrow's Saturday, Ferb_, he thought. _That's the day of the Christmas Banquet. If you plan on fixing Phineas' problem, you have until six o'clock that night. We play at seven o'clock, right after dinner. You_ need _to find Phineas' voice before we get on stage. You're the one in charge this time. You are. _

He stared at Phineas a moment longer before finally closing his eyes. _I know what we're going to do tomorrow_, he thought: _We're going to find Phineas' voice, even if it_ is _the last thing we'll do. _


	13. Chapter 13

_Ssssss…_

"… That's a snake. Cross that out… Try again."

_Quack-quack-quaaack-quaaaaack…_

"…Aaaand, that was a mallard. Try this one."

_Hoo-hoooo-hooo…_

"Great Horned Owl… Next."

Phineas rolled his eyes in a very exaggerated way. Saturday morning began with breakfast for both boys, but right after that, Ferb had wanted to finish going through the Vocal Box sounds again. They had begun at nine in the morning—Linda would have been far too curious to see what they were up to if they started any earlier.

It was now nearing one in the afternoon. Linda and Lawrence had gone to visit the Garcia-Shapiros until it was time to leave for the banquet. Phineas and Ferb stayed at home alone, continuing their problem solving.

But _still_no sign of Phineas' voice.

Ferb could tell that his brother was beginning to lose hope in ever finding his voice. He had gone through nearly an entire week of muteness, and by now, Phineas was getting weary of his brother's contraption. If anything, it was beginning to irritate him.

Frankly, the whole problem was beginning to tire Ferb out too.

He held up the Vocal Box again. "Just a few more, Phineas," he said softly. "We're almost done."

Phineas was sitting crossed legged on his bed again, with his cheek in his hand. He looked up gloomily before sighing and opening his mouth: _rivet-rivet-rivet-rivet_

"That's a frog," Ferb muttered as he crossed that code out. He punched in another code. "Here."

But this time, Phineas sat up straight and glared tiredly at his stepbrother. Firmly, he shook his head. Ferb let his shoulders droop. "Do you want to stay mute?" he asked.

Phineas shook his head again.

"Then try it again."

Phineas shook his head even more vigorously. Ferb set the contraption down and groaned. "What _else_do you plan on doing then?" he asked. "We have until six o'clock tonight to get your voice back. What else do you expect me to do? We're nearly done, so let's just finish up the code book and—!"

Phineas slapped his hands down against the covers of his bed and clenched his teeth. He pulled at his hair before picking up his sketch book and writing a message down on the next blank page. Tearing it out once he was through, he handed it to his brother.

_I can't stand vocalizing every single sound you can think of other than my own voice! I REFUSE to be some crazy guinea pig for that stupid Vocal Box of yours, Ferb! _

Ferb passed a hand over his face. "You are not a guinea pig," he muttered behind clenched teeth.

Phineas wrote another message. _Then why have I sounded like a donkey, elephant, bottlenosed dolphin, fog horn and howler monkey since Wednesday? _

Ferb yanked the note out of his brother's hand. "Because of your own fault, that's why," he accused him. "If you hadn't been so curious, this wouldn't have happened."

Phineas furiously wrote down another message. _If YOU hadn't insisted on building that stupid thing, my curiosity wouldn't have gotten the better of me_! His note snapped in reply.

"Aren't you the one who _encouraged_me to try inventing on my own?" Ferb pointed out.

_Aren't you the one who never makes mistakes? _

Ferb yanked the entire sketchbook out of Phineas' hands. "It's YOUR fault this time, not mine, Phineas Flynn!" he yelled. "This is already wasting my time as it is! If you didn't yack so much in the first place, maybe this wouldn't have happened! So suck it up already!"

Phineas recoiled at the shout and stared at his brother in shock for a moment or two. It was only when he looked away with a hurt expression on his face that Ferb realized what he had just done. He had never as much snapped at his brother before, and here he was, not only yelling at him, but accusing him of the very thing he was trying to mend. The green-haired teenager covered his mouth. "I didn't mean that, Phineas," he apologized sincerely.

Phineas did not look at him. He only kept his head turned as tears filled his eyes.

"Really, Phineas, I didn't. I-I didn't mean to yell at you. It's not wasting my time…"

Phineas tightened his lips together while rubbing his arm nervously. He blinked several times quickly in order to keep the tears from coming out.

Ferb removed his hand from over his mouth and reached out in order to rest it over his brother's shoulder. "Phineas…"

Just as his hand was about to set down, Phineas violently swatted it aside. Shutting his eyes tightly while clenching his teeth, he got off of the bed as quickly as he could and dashed out of the room while covering his eyes.

"Phineas, wait!" Ferb cried out. He immediately set the Vocal Box aside and leaped to his feet before running out after his brother. "I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!"

He dashed down the stairs as quickly as he could go, but even before he had reached the bottom he heard the front door of the house slam shut with a loud _CLACK_! Running into the living room, Ferb pushed back the curtains and peered out the window, just in time to see his brother pull out of the driveway on the snow bike Ferb had finished for him for his birthday.

_Well_, he thought, as he watched Phineas rip down the street, _at least I know the bike works. _

* * *

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I think that's a good place to stop for now. Nice and suspenseful XDDDDD_


	14. Chapter 14

"You… _what?"_

Ferb passed a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. "I… yelled at him," he admitted shamefully. It was now four o'clock. Ferb had spent the entire afternoon searching for his little brother, but to no avail. He went to every stop they enjoyed in the city, every place they hung out, every hideout they had discovered over the years. But one other thing Ferb had learned about Phineas was that he was incredibly cunning. Someone with that large of an imagination _had_ to be.

Which meant that if Phineas did not want to be found by anyone, even by Ferb, then he never would be until he decided to come out himself.

Ferb searched for him nonetheless. He took out the snowmobile from the garage and searched through the entire neighbourhood, thinking that he would be able to catch up with his best friend in no time. But to his dismay, after a little over three hours of searching, he was forced to give in and head back home.

Phineas missing was worse than Phineas mute. How would Ferb explain to the others that their lead singer had run away because the one person he expected to constantly back him up… yelled at him?

Ferb could not find the courage to call Isabella. Despite the friendship all three of them had, Ferb was more than certain Isabella would scold him for being careless. It did not happen often, since Isabella considered Ferb as not only a close friend but as a confidant, especially concerning her feelings towards his stepbrother; but just because she looked up to Ferb, it did not mean that she could not give him a piece of her mind.

So Ferb never called her. Instead, he called his girlfriend and asked her to come over.

But Vanessa's reaction had been just the same as Isabella's would have been.

The twenty-one-year-old groaned and leaned back in her chair at the dining table in the Flynn-Fletcher house. "I cannot believe you actually yelled at him," she said with a hint of disappointment. "I mean, yeah, sure, Phineas talks a lot, but he does it for good reasons." She began counting down her fingers. "He talks about inventions, he talks about helping people, he talks to make people laugh, he talks to make them feel good about themselves, he talks—!"

"Would you _please_ stop that?" Ferb moaned as he buried his face in hands. "I _know_ what he talks about; I grew up for him, for goodness sake!"

"What I'm trying to get to is that despite being a chatterbox, Phineas has never used that to manipulate people or to be a total jerk," Vanessa clarified. "Most chatterboxes do. But ever since I got to know him better, I've come to the conclusion that if you've got big brains, a big mouth _and _a big heart, things tend to balance out. Phineas just gets overexcited about things and rants on about what you two are going to do every day. The only time I can honestly say he was annoying was when he got overprotective of Perry and started a heated discussion with my dad." Vanessa shuddered. "Two geniuses going at each other's throats because of a platypus? I dunno, my dad's a pinhead, but I can imagine how embarrassed he was when a thirteen-year-old was scolding him for trying to harm his pet platypus."

Ferb groaned behind his hands and then messed up his green hair. "This is _not_ helping our situation, Vanessa," he said. "Phineas talks a lot; Phineas is protective of Perry; Phineas dislikes your father because he's evil. I already _know_ all of this. What I want to know now is where he is? If Mother and Father come home and find that Phineas has run off because I _yelled_ at him, I'll have Mum panicking for hours until we find him!" He crossed his arms over the table and placed his face against them. "Why oh _why_ did I have to go and _yell_ at him like that? I didn't even _mean_ what I said to him! I was just tired of going through that stupid code book looking for his voice."

Vanessa leaned towards him. "Maybe his voice isn't on the Vocal Box, Ferb," she suggested.

Ferb looked up at her. "Where else could it be?" he said. "It makes no sense whatsoever that his voice could have just disappeared, Vanessa. He pushed a code that muted it, so it _must_ still be on that crazy Vocal Box. It just _has _to be."

"Maybe it's just not loud enough for us to hear."

At these words, Ferb sat up straight and opened his eyes wide. "Repeat that?" he muttered hastily.

Vanessa stared at him in silence while blinking her eyes before raising an eyebrow. "Uh, maybe it's not loud enough for us to hear?" she repeated.

She had hardly finished speaking when Ferb turned in his chair and began tapping his chin. "Not loud enough, not loud enough," he muttered over and over again. "Not loud enough for us to hear…" Several seconds went by before his face lit up and a smile spread over his lips. Ferb snapped his fingers. "That's it!" he exclaimed. "That's what's wrong! Phineas' voice _is_ still recorded on the Vocal Box, but it's not loud enough to be projected back at him!"

Vanessa frowned in confusion. "Huh?"

Ferb stood up and looked at her. "The combination Phineas punched in must have been a new one without any sound recorded on it," he explained. "Which means that when he began to speak, it literally took the words right out of his mouth and planted them into the machine."

"You built a box that could actually _do _that?"

"We built a portal to Mars."

"… Touché. Keep going."

Ferb walked over to his girlfriend and pulled her to her feet. "Phineas mentioned that when he was speaking, he noticed that his voice was getting softer and softer until finally, it disappeared," he continued. "I only remember now that, when I created all those codes for the other sounds and noises on the box, I mixed them all together on the computer. But the recorder in the Vocal Box only works at a pitch that the human ear cannot register. Kind of like a dog whistle, you know?"

"Okay… I think."

"Anyway, I had to mix the sounds together to make them realistic, but because the recorder in the box needs to receive the sounds at a higher pitch, I needed to re-record the sounds at the right playing field before properly installing them in the machine. That way, when I manually set the box to project the sound through a human's vocals, it would be able to play at the right tone for the human ear to hear."

"But how does that explain Phineas' voice disappearing?" Vanessa asked.

Ferb made gestures with his hands. "The Vocal Box can also record," he answered. "I installed empty codes, at least a dozen of them, so that when I heard a sound I liked, I could record it by punching in the combination. But after I deemed the experiment too dangerous, for events such as Phineas going mute, I decided to put the box away and I just… forgot what those combinations were."

Vanessa's eyes filled with revelation. She pointed at her boyfriend. "So that means that Phineas accidentally pushed one of those combinations and activated the recorder," she said. "And because of the programming of the Vocal Box, his voice _seemed _to be getting softer, when in reality it was only getting higher until it was far too high for anyone to hear properly!"

"That means that Phineas _isn't_ mute; his voice is simply too high for anyone to properly hear," Ferb added. "So all I have to do is re-enter that code and he'll be able to speak again!"

Vanessa placed her hands on Ferb's shoulders. "Hang on, Ferb," she said sternly. "Didn't you say earlier that when you tried punching in the same code, nothing happened? You mentioned that you tried using it again when you were attempting to try out the codes all week with Phineas. I thought you said that it didn't work."

Ferb fell incredibly silent here. His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach as he turned around and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. A frown settled over his brow. _True, but that _must_ be the solution,_ he thought. _There isn't any other possible explanation. Phineas' voice is just being vocalized at a higher pitch, so we can't hear it. But if it won't play back properly for us, how in the world will I be able to bring it back down to normal picth?_

He immediately thought of the microphone he had installed on the box. _Wait a minute,_ he realized. _I never tried recording anything after I manually installed the codes onto the box. That means that I never got a chance to tweak the microphone settings in order for a recorded sound to properly play back._

Ferb turned around again and looked at Vanessa. "I'll need to fiddle around with the Vocal Box," he said. "I need to lower the pitch for the manual recording codes. That way, when Phineas speaks into it, his voice will return to normal."

Vanessa became uneasy. "Ferb, it's not that I don't think that's a good idea, but do you see what time it is?" She pointed at the clock, causing Ferb to look at it as well. "It's already almost five o'clock now. The Christmas Banquet starts at six, remember? Or more precisely, dinner starts at six. _You_ guys start playing at seven o'clock. You're the first band to play, remember? I don't think you have enough time to open that contraption and figure out what's wrong with it."

Ferb pulled at his hair and groaned. "Then what am I going to do?" he complained. "Phineas isn't back yet, Mum and Father will be returning in order to get ready, Candace and Jeremy will be waiting there for us, and Isabella, Buford and Baljeet are going to be wondering where we are! I need to find _some_ way to make the pitch of that recording lower so that Phineas can sing into his microphone, but—!"

A light bulb lit up in his mind at that very instant. "Microphone," Ferb echoed. Another smile spread over his lips and he spread out his arms. "Yes! Ha, ha, I've got it! I know how to fix Phineas' voice without needing to tweak the Vocal Box!"

"How?" his girlfriend wondered curiously.

"You'll find out tonight. Now, might as well go get dressed in those clothes you brought over while I do the same; all we're missing now are my parents and the mute inventor."


	15. Chapter 15

Linda and Lawrence returned at about five o'clock, just as Ferb and Vanessa were finished getting dressed. The couple announced that it was a beautiful night, the stars were out, and the windshield was not harsh.

"Perfect weather to gather the instruments into the vehicle," Lawrence announced as he flexed his fingers.

Ferb's parents got dressed immediately upon entering the house, which was more than enough relief for the sixteen-year-old; they were too concerned at the moment about getting ready for the banquet to ask of the whereabouts of Phineas. His mother had picked out a dazzling dark red dress that sparkled in the light, enough to make her look beautiful without being too much glitter. Lawrence quickly suited up in dark dress pants and a dark green buttoned shirt. Despite how nice they looked when they came out of their bedroom or the bathroom upstairs, the couple had hardly spent fifteen minutes getting ready.

Linda reached over and patted her son's cheek when he came out of the living room all dressed up. "You look so handsome, Sweetie," she complimented. Like his father, he was wearing black pants, shoes and a purple buttoned shirt with a tie. Ferb had even brushed back his hair neatly, though he would undoubtedly let it bounce back up once dinner was over.

The teenager grinned and nodded his head in thanks. Linda then turned to Vanessa, who was wearing a black dress with matching shoes. "And don't _you_ look like a gorgeous young woman tonight?" Linda said eagerly.

Vanessa smiled. "Thank you, Mrs. Flynn," she replied.

"Remind me to take photos of you and Ferb when you're out on the dance floor together. I need to scrapbook!"

Vanessa looked at Ferb. The boy was already blushing a little with embarrassment.

"Anyway, we might as well get going," Linda noted while looking at the clock nearby. "Lawrence, mind gathering the instruments we need to bring?"

"Already on it, Darling," Lawrence called out from the basement. "Although a helping hand would be nice."

"Ferb, go give your father a hand, please." Linda watched her son walk off and enter the basement before gasping softly and looking about. "Where's Phineas? He needs to get dressed if he wants to come."

Vanessa bit her bottom lip nervously and played with her fingers.

"That boy honestly has a poor sense of time," Linda muttered. She cupped her hands around her mouth and turned towards the stairs that lead to the second floor. "Phineas! Phineas Flynn, get down here this instant!" When there was no reply, the woman groaned and looked at the open basement door. "Ferb, do you know where your—!"

Just then, the front door was heard opening. Linda and Vanessa turned around just in time to see the teenager Linda had been searching for enter the house. He closed the door quietly behind him and did not look up.

"Where on Earth have you been?" Linda wondered as Phineas stomped snow off of his feet. "We're just about to leave. Can you go upstairs and go put on that dark red blouse I picked out for you? And if you need help putting on your tie again, let your father know and he'll help you."

Phineas did not once look up at his mother, but he did nod in response and obediently walked up the stairs. Vanessa watched him leave, taking pity over him; she could only imagine how difficult it must be for him to not be able to talk.

_I hope whatever plan Ferb has is going to work,_ she thought, just as Ferb and his father came back upstairs with a few of the instruments.

* * *

Phineas got dressed slowly, despite knowing that his mother would eventually ask him to hurry. Last week, he had been more than excited about attending the Christmas Banquet. He was eager to perform onstage again.

But not anymore. What use was attending a banquet thrown every year by your high school, one in which you normally perform a musical number, if you had no voice to sing with?

Or to _speak_ with for that matter?

The word _speak_ echoed in Phineas' mind as he stood in front of the mirror and tied his tie around his shirt collar. His heart dropped to the pit of his stomach. Ferb's words still ricocheted off the walls of his mind, making more tears spring up to his eyes. He had never expected such hurtful words come from his own brother's mouth.

"_This is already wasting my time as it is! If you didn't yack so much in the first place, maybe this wouldn't have happened! So suck it up already!"_

Phineas stared at his reflection once he had finished fastening his tie, just as Ferb's voice echoed again. Did he really talk a lot? Did he really sound as irritating as Buford had said? Was it really a waste of everyone's time to help him find his voice again?

Tears threatened to overflow from his eyes. Phineas quickly raised an arm and wiped it across his face before taking a deep breath and exhaling loudly. Whether he was an annoying chatterbox or not, there was nothing he could do any longer; they were supposed to be performing tonight. Once the school found out the truth, Phineas would undoubtedly need to find some way to explain everything to his parents afterwards.

He would probably have to even change schools and go to one for students who were blind, deaf or mute.

… That would be strange.

"_It'll be a lot quieter around here…"_

Phineas looked down at his hands in silence until he heard his mother call to him from the main floor. Then, once his shoes were on his feet, he put on his jacket again and left the room while tying his scarf around his neck.

Perry, who had been watching him silently from his cushioned bed, got up and ran out after him.

"Did you have any difficulty with your tie, Dear?" Linda asked as Phineas walked down the stairs. She and Vanessa were now dressed in their coats, ready to head out. The absence of Lawrence and Ferb signaled that they were still carrying instruments up from the basement.

The red-head finished tying his scarf and shook his head silently.

"At least that's good," his mother added as she opened the front door. "Why don't you go and sit down in the van, Phineas? Your father and Ferb are just bringing up the last of the instruments. We should be right behind you."

Phineas nodded his head weakly and walked passed his mother without letting her ask if he was ready to speak yet. He was afraid that she would see the truth in his eyes. If he really would need to confess to his parents tonight, Phineas decided to wait until that moment had come.

Which, he had a bad feeling, would be very soon.

He stepped out into the winter night, stopping only briefly to shiver in the cool breeze. By that hour, the sky was already black and littered in stars. If it had not been for the street lights or the van's headlights, it would have been impossible to see anything. Looking back once at the house, Phineas stuck his hands into his pockets and began walking down the path that led to the driveway. He had reached the van and was just about to open the side door when a hand clamped over his mouth, taking the teenager completely by surprise. He instinctively tried breaking free until he was pulled backwards and his captor had hidden them both behind the van and out of view from the house.

"Come here, you little brat!"

Phineas opened his eyes in shock when he heard that voice. When he felt the tip of a type of gun rest against his temple, he turned his eyes upwards to get a better look at whoever had him captive.

Had he not recognized the voice, Phineas would have never guessed that man in the blue parka to be his pet platypus' nemesis.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz held a ray gun against the sixteen-year-old's head as he spoke. "Listen very closely, Kid," he said menacingly while checking over his shoulder to see if anyone was coming. "I went through a whole _heap_ of trouble this past week, and I've had it up to here with everything you do. So I'm going to take you back with me to my evil lair and I don't want you making a single sound, got that, Chatterbox? I don't want to hear a single syllable come out of your—!"

He stopped in his tracks upon seeing Phineas' annoyed glare. Doof stared at him in silence for a moment before his eyebrows rose in revelation. "Oh, oh, right," he muttered while removing his hand from the boy's mouth. "You, uh… you no longer have a voice. Ah, yes, it uh… slipped my mind, heh, heh…" He paused for a moment before frowning back at Phineas. "Oh, grow up, I can't remember everything, you know! I'm not getting younger!" He violently grabbed the back of Phineas' collar and shoved him forward. "Speaking of which, you're beginning to waste my time! I want to get this over with now, so let's go, Red!"

Phineas stumbled forward before regaining his balance. He was not the least bit frightened of Doof, but the gun the scientist was holding up against his back now was more than enough to let the teenager know that he had no choice but to obey. All he could do while Doofenshmirtz directed him to his small car parked on the street was pray someone had noticed his kidnapping.


	16. Chapter 16

Phineas' kidnapping _had_ been noticed. But not by either of his parents, or even his brother or his brother's girlfriend.

It had been, in fact, his pet platypus who had noticed.

Perry had followed Phineas down the stairs merely out of pity for the boy. He had noticed the distress in Phineas' eyes as he got dressed, and although he had been absent for the morning, Perry had in fact re-entered the house early again, and just as his owner dashed out with Ferb attempting to apologize for something he did. Whatever Ferb had said to him, whether the green-head had meant it or not, had hurt Phineas more than anything anyone had ever said to him before.

Perry climbed onto the couch as Phineas left the house and walked out onto the driveway from the window. The platypus watched him sadly, wishing there was some way Phineas could cheer up and be his old self again. Perry loved him the most when he was happy, and he would continue to; with or without a voice.

He was just about to turn and leave when Perry noticed a dark silhouette reach out and yank Phineas out of view. Perry raised his head in bewilderment and waited to see what had happened. The more the seconds passed, the more suspicious the platypus became.

After a minute or two, Phineas stumbled into view again; to Perry's confusion, he was walking towards the street now. The dark silhouette the animal had seen earlier walked behind him and into view, and it was both expected and unexpected:

Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, holding a gun against the teenager's back, was kidnapping Perry's owner right in front of the Flynn-Fletcher house. The worst part was that he was actually getting away with it.

Perry growled furiously and clenched his fists around the material on the couch before leaping off and running out on four legs.

In the hallway, Lawrence sighed as he kicked the basement door closed behind him. "Alright, I think that's the last of them," he said, walking over with another guitar stand in his hands. He stopped next to his wife and Vanessa while Ferb slipped his coat on. "I supposed we should be heading out now…" He looked about in curiosity. "Hey; where's Phineas?"

Linda pointed over her shoulder. "He's already waiting in the van for us," she replied.

Ferb looked at her curiously before looking at his girlfriend. Vanessa shrugged. "He came back while you guys were downstairs," she whispered.

Her boyfriend nodded his head until he felt something tug on his pant leg. Looking down, he found Perry biting onto his other owner's clothes and tugging strongly as though it was insisting the Ferb followed it.

"What on Earth is Perry doing?" Lawrence wondered curiously as the others looked on as well.

Ferb listened to the animal grunt almost worriedly before looking up at his father. "Uh, his food dish must be empty," he replied. "I'll go fill it up for him."

"Do it quickly, then," Linda said as she watched Ferb walk off. "I don't want to be late for dinner."

Ferb waited until his parents were out of sight before opening his mouth and asking the platypus what was wrong—he knew that Perry's dish was not empty; in fact, the platypus had not yet finished his breakfast.

But just as he was about to ask what the matter was, Perry stood up on his back legs and climbed up Ferb's body until he was sitting on his shoulder. Loudly, he grunted and pushed Ferb's head forward.

"Perry, what are you doing?" Ferb demanded to know.

Perry gently slapped the teenager's back with his tail and pointed eagerly at the living room window.

"What's outside?" Ferb wondered. When all the platypus did was slap his back harder, Ferb groaned and walked over to the window. "Fine, I'm looking, I'm looking." He climbed onto the couch and leaned forward while scanning the yard. "What exactly do you want me to s—!"

He did not finish his words; he had no need to. For just at that moment, his eyes fell upon the sight of his girlfriend's father shoving Ferb's stepbrother towards a small white car parked on the street nearby. In his hands was a gun, which the man was probably willing to shoot if Phineas did not do as he was told.

Ferb gasped in horror and leaned as close as he could to the window while Perry climbed onto his head and did the same.

Doofenshmirtz had arrived at the car and was opening the passenger's door, all the while holding on tightly to Phineas' jacket collar, almost as though attempting to lift him off of his feet. Phineas watched him open the door silently until he turned his eyes back onto the house. When he did, his gaze fell upon Ferb and Perry's.

Ferb noticed the ever present hurt in them from their argument early on that day; but what he was most focusing on at that moment was the confusion and even slight bit of fear.

Phineas did not need to speak to let his brother know that he needed help.

"No, no, no, _no,"_ Ferb muttered behind his teeth. He watched as Doof forced Phineas into the car before slamming his fists against the couch and leaning back. "Vanessaaaaa!" he called out. "Could you come here for a moment?"

There was a bit of a pause before his girlfriend walked into the living room. "What's wrong?" she asked, oblivious to what was happening at that moment.

Ferb pointed furiously out the window. "Do _not_ tell me that that is your father's vehicle," he hissed behind clenched teeth.

Vanessa walked up to the window and gasped softly as the little white car turned around and sped off down the street. "What was he doing here?" she wondered.

"Kidnapping _Phineas!"_ Ferb replied sharply.

"What? Why would he want to do that?"

"He's _your_ father; you tell me!"

"Well, what are we going to do about it?"

Ferb passed a hand through his hair worriedly. A tug on his arm pulled him out of his train of thoughts. Looking at his pet platypus, he found that Perry had already taken out his fedora and was wearing it over his head. With a bold frown, the animal smacked his fist into the palm of his other hand.

Ferb knew what this meant. "We're going to go rescue him," he muttered. He turned around and dashed out of the living room. Peeking around the corner to see his parents, he said, "Uh, you know what, Mum? Phineas and I are actually going to take the uh… scenic route," he fibbed. "He went out today and wanted to show Vanessa and me something before we head off to the arena for the banquet."

Linda and Lawrence stared at him in surprise.

"You, uh… You don't mind, do you?"

His parents looked at each other for a moment before Lawrence shrugged his shoulders and left the house. Linda zipped up her jacket. "Alright," she said, "But be sure to be at the Banquet before you guys are scheduled to perform, alright?"

"Yes, Mother."

"See you there, then."

Ferb waited for her to close the door behind her before dashing back into the living room. He frowned at Vanessa and pointed at her. "Your father is messed up, you know that?" he accused.

Vanessa frowned in reply and crossed her arms. "He's kidnapped Major Monogram before and a bunch of other people," she replied. "No harm's ever been done to them in the past."

"Have you forgotten how much he _hates_ Phineas?"

"Dad doesn't hate him, Ferb—!"

Perry cleared his throat and crossed his arms while eying Vanessa angrily. The girl looked at him and groaned. "Oh, come off it!" she exclaimed. "Phineas has never done him any harm before, other than house his arch nemesis! I doubt whatever _inator_ he's built this time is going to do the trick on destroying him—!"

Perry interrupted her and handed her his notepad. He flipped a few pages and made signal to her that she had to read what was on the next few pages. Vanessa looked at him in silence before opening her mouth and reading the notes: "Tuesday, December 8th—Doofenshmirtz builds another _inator;_ plot against news vans; plot foiled at 3:30—felt like it was too easy a mission— Doof flashback is odd, distracted—trap was weak—back at home just as school bus pulls up—something fishy?

"Wednesday, December 9th—Doof's new _inator_ supposed to attack brother—lair empty? No Doof, no machine? SUSPICION—return home at noon—do global search, still nothing… off the satellite… something is up…

"Thursday, December 10th—still empty. No Doof. No _inator._ He's up to something, but what?

"Friday, December 11th—similar to Thursday. Empty lair. _Confirmation that he is up to something BIG._

"Saturday, December 12th—day off, but go in and check out once more… nothing. Come home in time to see Phineas run outside… argument?"

Ferb blushed at this and glared at the platypus. "You actually wrote that down in your _log?"_ he complained. "That's not part of your schedule!"

Perry shrugged apologetically before Vanessa handed him the notepad again. The woman rubbed her chin worriedly. "Okay, I think Perry's got a good point," she noted. "Dad's never been this discrete about something. He's always focused on doing that one thing and trapping Perry… But he disappears on Wednesday? Yeah, he was up to something—!"

"That _still_ doesn't help Phineas, Vanessa," Ferb argued. "Your father is doing something crazy again, and Phineas has something to do with it this time! If anything happens to him—!"

"I got the picture, Ferb; how do you suppose we get to _Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc_ fast enough? My car is fast, but I don't want a speeding ticket _or_ an accident. What should we use to get there pronto?"

Ferb rubbed his chin for a moment until Perry made his usual chatter. When both humans looked at him, the platypus pointed down the hallway and then pointed at the basement.

Ferb stared at him in silence before he understood. "Follow the platypus," he said.


	17. Chapter 17

It had been very difficult for Perry to create a secret entrance to his lair for growing boys like Phineas and Ferb. Once Major Monogram had allowed them access to OWCA information, Perry had built an elevator that would take the boys from their bedroom closet to his lair beneath the house. He warned them never to use it unless it was for an emergency such as this; but knowing Phineas' unending curiosity, Perry was not the least bit surprised that the boys had taken the elevator simply to go through some of the platypus' spy gear.

They took this entrance to the lair, since it was the only one that could properly fit both Vanessa and Ferb at the same time. It was not a long ride, considering Perry always had to be in his lair in a hurry. When the doors parted and Perry dashed into the giant underground headquarters, Vanessa was the only one who eyed the area in awe.

"Oh. My. Gosh," she said in disbelief. "You mean all this time, Perry had _this _under your house and you never _knew _it?" She watched her boyfriend walk off. "How oblivious _were_ you and your family, anyway?"

Ferb shrugged in reply just as Perry activated the giant communications screen. The call was immediately answered, although it was not Perry's superior who appeared in the camera. Instead, it was his assistant, Carl the Intern. The curly red-haired man pushed up his square glasses and tilted his head curiously. "Agent P? What are you calling HQ for at this hour?" he wondered. "And on your day off, too?"

Perry pointed over his shoulder at Ferb, as he and Vanessa walked into view. The platypus then pointed urgently at Carl.

"Oh, an emergency? Hang on, then, I'll go get Major Monogram." Carl rushed off and disappeared off screen. The other three waited impatiently for his return. Hardly a minute had passed when he did. "Uh, he's just getting suited up again for you, and uh, will be out shortly." Carl looked at Ferb over Perry's shoulder and grinned before waiving. "Hey, Ferb," he greeted. "How's school going?"

Ferb shrugged and nodded in reply, and tried not to look impatient. He and Phineas had been able to get along better with Carl than with Major Monogram, but at the moment, all Ferb wanted to do was rescue his brother. He was not there to small talk.

Carl opened his mouth to speak again when a deep voice off screen told him to get out of the way. Like a puppy, Carl did as he was told and walked out of view. A man with a unibrow, a large nose and white, army-cut hairstyle and moustache appeared next. Crossing his arms, he looked at the platypus sitting in the seat before the video screen. "What's the matter, Agent P?" he asked. "I was just about to call it a night when Carl told me you had an emergency. What seems to be the pro—!"

The man stopped in his words upon seeing the two humans standing behind the platypus' chair. Although he did not seem the least bit pleased to see the animal's arch nemesis' daughter standing there, he was even more shocked to see Ferb. After a momentary pause of staring at the teenager, Monogram groaned loudly and glared at the platypus. "What the heck did they do this time?" he snapped.

Vanessa scoffed. "And hello to you too," she muttered under her brother.

"Agent P, did those two boys go off doing something unsafe with your things again?" Before the platypus could reply, Monogram pointed at Ferb, taking the boy by surprise. "What is it that went wrong this time?" he scolded. "Didn't Agent P already tell you two not to goof off with government property? Remember the last time when you two thirteen-year-olds tried _helping_ on a mission? We nearly got discovered AND destroyed! And if you're here, where the heck's that kid brother of yours?"

Ferb was not the least bit impressed by the man's voice. Ever since they had been allowed to be filled in on Perry's identity, Phineas and Ferb had been considered as "thorns" in Major Monogram's side. The man did not enjoy seeing the boys as children get into every piece of equipment they owned, and because of Phineas' constant curiosity, Monogram still found them irritating as teenagers.

Perry waved his arms about in order to catch his boss' attention. Once Monogram looked at him, the platypus began miming out the kidnapping and then held up a photo of Dr. Doofenshmirtz. In conclusion, he pointed at Ferb while leaning over the computer board.

Monogram rubbed his chin. "Okay, I see," he muttered sternly. "So what you're saying is that Dr. Doofenshmirtz has been planning something big all week and the schemes we were notified about were all decoys to keep you distracted…" He looked at Vanessa. "Your father's a real crazy head, by the way," he said.

Vanessa glared and him while placing her hands on her hips. "Move along," she said through clenched teeth.

Monogram looked at Ferb next. "And he kidnapped the direct owner of our best agent," he concluded. After a moment, he frowned. "I _knew_ letting you two in on this would cause nothing but trouble," he said sternly. "We should have brainwashed you when we had the chance."

Ferb lost his patience. "I don't mean to be rude, Major Monogram Sir, but my _brother_ has just been kidnapped by a man on _your_ wanted list," he said dryly. "So either you will give us permission to use whatever Perry intends to transport us to DE Inc… Or I'll just hack your system and borrow it without permission."

"Hey! That's a double win!" Monogram complained.

"Too bad, so sad, then. That's the trouble you have when your best agent's owners happen to be geniuses. You lose all the time. So what will it be?"

Monogram raised an eyebrow and looked at Perry. "They're annoying, but they're persistent," he mentioned. "And I like that." He looked at Ferb again. "In bay number two, there's a hovercraft that you should all be able to fit in," he explained. "That's the fastest means to Doofenshmirtz' lair. Although considering he's been dodging Agent P all week, I wouldn't be surprised if he's actually not there. You may need to find some way to track your brother down manually—!"

"Already on it," Vanessa interrupted while pointed at the platypus. Perry was madly typing in commands into the computer system. "Looks like Perry's got everything sorted out."

"Agent P, did you install tracking devices on your two boys without my consent?"

Perry looked up briefly from his work and nodded firmly before continuing.

"Where's the device located?"

Perry opened his mouth and pointed at the back of his top jaw.

"And why, might I ask?"

Perry glared at him.

"… Fine, because they're your owners. Good enough for me."

Perry finished typing in commands and ran to a smaller screen on the board. Sure enough, a little blip flashed on it, indicating Phineas' location. Perry uploaded the information onto his small pager before turning around and nodding at Ferb.

Ferb nodded back before he followed the platypus towards bay 2. Vanessa saluted the Major. "Thanks for the help," she said before dashing off.

Monogram noticed the sarcasm in her voice. He narrowed his eyes. "You know, you may end up just like your father, Missy!" he scolded. "Kids these days…"


	18. Chapter 18

It took Perry, Ferb and Vanessa hardly fifteen minutes to follow Phineas' signal to its location. It led them to Danville's cargo port. Parking the hoverer a safe distance from the warehouse where the boy's signal was coming from, Perry led the other two humans as quietly as he could through the back door, making sure that there were no traps first—he had no time to follow the daily schedule he and Doof performed. The platypus had a bad feeling that whatever the doctor was up to this time, it was big, and it involved his owner. And whenever Phineas or Ferb were involved with one of Doof's schemes, Perry never followed procedure.

"This is a big warehouse," Vanessa whispered as she and Ferb tiptoed after the secret agent. Giant crates and machinery hid them from view luckily, though they had no idea if they were being watched from some other place.

"Which can only mean big trouble," Ferb replied. As Perry leaped up onto some crates and climbed up a giant machine of some sort, Ferb helped his girlfriend up before following her. Once at the top of the crates, they crawled to the climbing bars on the side of the machine and crept up after Perry.

"Do you hear that?" Ferb whispered, finally noticing a voice echo through the warehouse.

"Pfft; that's Dad alright," Vanessa muttered. "He's going over some wacko flashback of his again.

"I can only imagine how bored Phineas must be to hear him rant, then."

"Considering he's mute right now, he's probably ready to pull his hair out."

Perry looked down at them and raised a finger to his bill in order to shush them. Then, he continued on his way until reaching the top of the machine. Vanessa and Ferb came up right behind them. All three crawled on their stomachs to the edge of the machine and peered over the side in order to get a good look at the warehouse.

There were crates and machines all around the area, save where the giant door for trucks was situated. There was a crane nearby, or a small makeshift one, with a giant hook fastened at the end of its dangling chain. Near the center of the warehouse stood a wide, clear tube that was standing on a small pedestal vertically. Wires trailed from the top of the container down its side and into the floor by means of a drilled hole. The door that led into the tube was wide open. Inside was enough room for a man to stand. Against the flat wall at the back of the tube were built in wrist and ankle binders.

Standing in those, trapped, was Phineas Flynn. His coat had been discarded—probably because it made his limbs too wide for the restraints. All he had on now were his dress pants, dark red buttoned shirt and black tie.

Ferb gasped softly upon seeing his imprisoned brother and immediately made to get up—but Perry quickly placed a hand over his shoulder and pushed the teenager back down on his stomach. With a frown, the platypus shook his head.

Ferb objected. "But Phineas—!"

Perry placed his hand over Ferb's mouth this time, silencing him. Shaking his head again, he pointed discretely at another part of the warehouse.

Walking into view while rambling about some flashback was the animal's arch nemesis. Doof talked on and on while looking over a checklist he had in his hands—he spoke about a flashback and then switched to mumbling the checklist to himself, over and over again.

Perry, Ferb and Vanessa lowered their heads and watched.

* * *

"… So turns out that I was played for a fool the entire time," the scientist went on as he walked about. He was completely oblivious to the present of the three pairs of eyes high above, and so he went on. "But I'll show them. I will show the entire Tri-State area who can be the smartest scientist of them all." He raised his fist into the air and shook it. "And I will do it using _pure evil!_ No one will stand in my way—!"

Doof turned his eyes upon his prisoner at that moment to see if he was paying attention, but to his complete surprise, Phineas was rolling his eyes tiredly and leaning his head against the glass of the tube he was currently strapped against in a standing position. After slowly blinking, he looked at the scientist and stuck out his tongue in boredom.

"Were you ro—were you _rolling_ your _eyes_ at me?" Doof gasped. "And were you ignoring my rant? Ooooh, the nerve! You little brat; at least Perry the Platypus knows how to listen! You could learn a few things from him you know…"

And he went on again. Phineas would have groaned if he could. He was not normally impolite; he was often considered the only person anyone knew who could tolerate listening to someone's rant. But ever since he found out at the age of ten that Dr. Doofenshmirtz was evil, and that he was constantly fighting against Perry, the man had become the first person to make "Phineas' list of bad people who shouldn't be trusted" list. And the fact that he rambled on about complete nonsense made it even more tedious for the energetic teenager to bear.

"You rolled your eyes _again!"_ Doof exclaimed, catching Phineas off guard. "Why did you—why did you do that? Why do you keep doing that?"

Phineas raised an eyebrow and glared at him. Teeth bared, he attempted to pull himself free from his restraints. His arms were placed at his sides against the wall of the tube, and there were cuffs made of metal wrapped tightly around his upper arms and his wrists. There were also two around his ankles, which kept him from freely moving his legs.

Doof laughed evilly upon seeing the teenager attempt to escape. "I already told you, you can't get out of that, Kiddo," he taunted as Phineas stopped fighting back and frowned. Doof shook his finger in the boy's direction. "I'll betcha you never thought of creating something like this, huh?"

This time, Phineas smiled shrewdly and nodded his head. Doof's smile immediately washed away, making the boy giggle mutely. "What? How's that even possible?" the scientist fumed. "You're not evil! You're a goody two shoes! Why would you even _think _of building a trap like this?"

Phineas made small motions with his hands while looking upwards and smiling a wide grin. Because Doof was used to Perry having to mime out certain situations, he understood what Phineas was saying. He clenched his teeth. "Cops and Robbers?" he exclaimed. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me! You created reinforced handcuffs just to play a stupid game?"

Phineas nodded his head. The next thing he did was stick his tongue out and blow as hard as he could, making a loud sound. It was the only noise he could make for the entire week.

Doof groaned loudly and pulled at his hair. "You are the most annoying little wretch I've ever known, even without a voice!" he yelled. "Why didn't Major Monogram erase your memory when you found out who your pet platypus was?" Without waiting for an answer, he pulled out a remote and held it up. "It's time we get this over with!" he said deeply before pressing his index finger down over the red button.

The ground immediately began to tremble. Phineas slipped his tongue back into his mouth and gasped softly before looking down at his feet in surprise. The section of the floor he was on opened up, leaving only the place where his tube was untouched. Out of an unknown area below the warehouse rose a massive structure which seemed to fit perfectly behind and at either sides of the glass container. There were giant tubes of transparent liquid bubbling and glowing white, illuminating the area in an eerie glow. The metal casting of the machine was a metallic blue, which was different than the green or plain colourless metal Doof normally worked with. Rods of electricity stuck out here and there, which automatically let the observer know that it was definitely a powerful machine.

Phineas stared up at it with a gaping mouth; it was the first time he was the least bit impressed—if not the slight bit afraid—of one of the doctor's creations.


	19. Chapter 19

From their hiding place above, Perry, Ferb and Vanessa could hardly believe their eyes as well. Perry even had to rub his in order to make sure that he was not just seeing something.

"Oh, my god," Vanessa gasped as the machine continued to rise higher and higher out of the ground. "That is the most advanced—and impressive, I'll add—thing I have ever seen my father build. He really worked all _week_ on this!"

Ferb leaned forward. "It's _huge,"_ he said. "It's… it looks a hundredfold more powerful than anything he's actually built before." Worry immediately settled in the pit of his stomach again, and when he looked at Perry, he noticed that the platypus was thinking the same thing:

_What does this have to do with Phineas?_

* * *

The machine continued to rise until finally coming to a stop with a low groan. Robotic clamps sprung out from the sides and slammed against the glass tube, holding it in place all the while giving the teenager trapped inside a good scare.

"Like it?" Doof asked, noticing the astonishment in Phineas' eyes. When the teenager looked at him, Doof smiled and stuffed the remote back into his lab coat pocket. "Took me aaaalll week and a dozen phone calls to get all the parts shipped in. Not bad for someone who's not _creative enough,_ hm?"

Phineas stared at him in silence as the scientist walked towards him, hands behind his back. "That flashback I just told you, Phineas Flynn, isn't the only reason why I built this," the man explained in a soft yet chilling tone. "Those other scientists who mocked me will receive a piece of my mind eventually. But at the moment there's just one person I need to be rid of before doing anything else. Only one, small, incredibly irritating teenager…" Doof leaned into the tube and pressed a finger against Phineas' nose. "_You,"_ he hissed menacingly.

Phineas gulped and found himself suddenly beginning to fear this evil scientist.

"You, you, _you,"_ Doofenshmirtz added before pulling himself back. "My creations aren't _creative_ enough, are they? Their names are not _creative_ enough, hm? They always blow up in the end, huh?" He paused here for a moment before waving a hand in the air. "Weelllll, okay, that part is true most of the time," he confessed. He pointed at Phineas again. "But they all worked! They all _would_ have worked, had it not been for Perry the Platypus…" He let his arms drop again as he rolled his eyes. "… Aaand a small miscalculation on my part… Whether it be on the creation or the goal or the timing of my arch nemesis…" He shook sense into his head and frowned at Phineas once more. "No matter. The fact remains—and it's quite an embarrassing one: a _sixteen-year-old_ red-headed chatterbox of a genius outranks me because his creations happen to be more elaborate and actually _work_ completely! His designs are flawless, are impossible, are simply outrageous, but they still work! All of them still function properly, or at least better than _mine._ And _why_ do you build them? Just so you can have _fun_ and _help_ people? Despicable!"

He pulled out another remote and smiled menacingly. "Well, that stroke of genius is about to come to an end, Phineas Flynn," Doofenshmirtz he boomed. "A mind as intelligent as that shouldn't be in the head of a teenager like you. Especially if you're going to use all that knowledge for _good._ Yeuck!" He pressed down on the button on the remote, activating the machine. He smiled deviously at the teenager as Phineas looked up and about in alarm. "Say hello, to my newest and greatest creation yet…" He raised his arms into the air. "The _Brain-Switch-inator!"_

What shock was in Phineas' eyes before was immediately snuffed out, replaced by a tedious look. He raised an eyebrow and glared at the man, not the least bit impressed by the name.

Doofenshmirtz stared back at him before narrowing his eyes and placing his hands on his hips. "What?" he exclaimed. "Gimme a break; I wasted an entire_ week_ putting this together! I didn't have _time_ to give a better name, Yeesh!" He walked up to the tube again and placed a hand on the glass door that was still wide open. He leaned in, nearly coming nose-to-nose with the sixteen-year-old. Smiling deviously, he said, "Despite that fact, I'm quite sure the entire purpose of this machine is quite clear, no?"

Dismay returned to Phineas' dark blue irises. Following that, panic.

Doof was pleased with what he saw. "That's more like it," he said deeply before pulling himself away. "I am going to switch brains with yours. You think I'm not creative enough to make machines that actually work, hm? Well, I'm pretty sure your mind will come in handy. Not to mention a younger brain tends to soak up more knowledge than one like mine." He shrugged while closing his eyes, just as Phineas began to attempt escape again. "Don't worry; you'll still have all of your memories and personality," Doof said, attempting to sound reassuring. "You just won't be nearly as clever as you once were." The scientist opened his eyes again and bared his teeth in a wide toothy grin. "Sayanora, Shorty!"

He slammed the door shut over the tube before turning and walking off to another machine, much smaller than the one Phineas was now trapped in. There, he picked up a helmet and placed it over his head. Two small rods popped out of them, and blue electricity began to bounce between the two of them.

Phineas tried pulling himself free as hard as he could, but his arms did not budge. Teeth clenched, he did everything in his power to move—he even tried wiggling his thin arms out from beneath the restraints—but all was in vain, despite his stubbornness not to believe it was so.

There was a noise up above him. Phineas looked up quickly, just in time to have a helmet, much like Dr. Doofenshmirtz, fall down on top of his head. This one had a tube trailing from it up into the machine, which the boy guessed would then transfer all of his youthful brain power and imagination to the scientist. Without wondering how it could be possible, Phineas immediately began breaking free even harder than before.

Doof laughed at his efforts. "You're actions a futile, Kiddo!" he chanted mockingly.

The machine began to hum loudly. It rumbled and vibrated, making the tube Phineas was in shake. He breathed heavily as he frantically tried to pull himself free from his prison. He so desperately wanted to scream for help, but without a voice, he could do nothing of the sort. Only pray something, or someone, would stop this contraption before things went too far.

"Keep that up, you'll dislocate your shoulders!" the scientist teased. "No one can see you, and no one can hear you, Boy!"

Phineas' heart began to beat in his ears. He pulled at his restraints in despair. Tears were on the verge of blurring his sight. Never had he ever been this frightened of Dr. Doofenshmirtz' invention. Never had he cursed himself for not heeding Ferb's apologies and simply staying with him in the house.

Never did he think he would be regretting that Perry had a day off from work.

"Yes, yes!" Doof exclaimed while holding up his arms. "Yes! It is functioning properly! Only a little more and the switch will begi—!"

Something rammed into the back of his head, sending the scientist sailing to the ground with a groan. The remote in his hand slipped out and went flying into the air. The man quietly thanked himself for making the helmets _fall-proof_ and then began to wonder who would dare to interrupt him during such an important point in his evil plot.

"Oh! Oh, wait a minute," he muttered after a moment. "If I do recall, despite having only a week off of schedule, there was always a point in my scheme where someone always intervened in the nick of time. That means…" With a gasp, he raised his head and stared ahead in shock.

Perry flipped into view and landed gracefully on his feet, placing a hand down in order to keep his balance. His other hand remained up in the air, and once he had caught the remote, he blew air upwards in order to raise hi fedora and frown menacingly at the scientist. He pressed his finger down on the button, bringing the entire machine to a complete stop in progress.

"Perry the Platypus!" Doof exclaimed. His expression of shock quickly turned to anger. "Oooh, how _dare_ you interrupt me in the middle of such an important experiment! And on your day off too, sheesh! You will regret the day you decided to—!"

Perry bared his teeth angrily and ran up to the scientist while swinging his fist in the air. It impacted with Doof's cheek, cutting him off completely.

Phineas had looked up in complete bewilderment when the machine ceased to vibrate, and felt a great wave of relief sweep over him when he saw his pet platypus engage in a fight with his nemesis. However, the relief quickly washed away when Perry dropped the remote in the struggle and Doof accidentally stepped on it without noticing. The remote not only broke, but it also reactivated the machine without any way to stop it.

Phineas wanted to groan in frustration so badly right then. Immediately, he resumed attempting to break free.

"Ha ha!" Doof laughed as he shot a ray gun at his nemesis. "Now you cannot stop it!"

Phineas looked down at his arms and tried slipping his wrists through the first pair of restraints. He was just about to give up when something caught his eye; it was a reflection in the metal of the machine. With a soft gasp, the teenager raised his head and looked at it. When he recognized a figure making its way towards him, he stared out of the glass.

Ferb had just landed on the floor from somewhere, and while Vanessa dashed over to her father and Perry in order to break up the fight, the green-haired student ran over to free his stepbrother.

Phineas could hardly believe his eyes. He smiled brightly upon seeing his best friend and never took his eyes off of him, afraid he was only seeing things.

Ferb came to a stop just outside the glass tube and pulled out a screwdriver. He smiled cleverly. "Haven't you learned anything?" he said to his brother while beginning to loosen the screws in the tube's door hinges. Within seconds he had the entire door off of its hinges. He let it drop backwards onto the floor and watched it break into pieces before looking at Phineas again with another smile on his lips. "We're supposed to work together. How do you expect me to do my part, if you're off getting kidnapped?"

Phineas only smiled back, considering it was all he could do at the moment. Ferb placed his tool between his teeth while he pulled the helmet off of his brother's head. It took a few muscles to do it—it was surprisingly tough to remove. Once Ferb had managed to toss it aside, he removed the screws in a panel of the wall Phineas was restrained against. Inside were the wires Ferb was more than certain would disable the restraints. He pulled two apart and switched ends with them until the cuffs made a whirring sound. Then, he stepped back.

The restraints clicked and immediately slid off of Phineas' arms and legs, disappearing into the wall. Without hesitation, Phineas threw his arms around Ferb's neck and hugged him as tightly as he could. Ferb placed his arms around Phineas for a moment before releasing him and turning around. "Vanessa, isn't there a way to shut this thing down?" he called out over the noise.

Vanessa pulled her father back from the platypus while Doof angrily cursed the animal and attempted to break free. "I dunno!" she replied. "He normally has some stupid self-destruct button on it!" She looked at her father and frowned. "Dad, how low can you possibly get? Kidnapping a teenager? Do you realize how much trouble you could get into if the cops caught you doing that?"

"At what point are you going to notice that I get foiled every day, but I never go to jail, Vanessa?" Doof argued. "I had a feeling it would end this way, but I decided to mix it up and took a week off to make it more extravagant!"

"But kidnapping Phineas—!"

"Oh, come on! Side with the pipsqueak instead of your own father—!"

Perry tossed one end of the broken remote at the man, hitting him square in the forehead. Doof yelled painfully before breaking free from his daughter and running after the platypus. "Get back here you semi-aquatic ball of frustration!" he snapped.

Perry dashed off and only leaped out of the way once he got close enough to the machine. Doof cried out in surprise when he had no time to stop and ran directly into the machine.

The Brain-Switch-inator immediately began to beep and whine loudly. The vibrations became more violent, shaking the entire warehouse.

Phineas flailed his arms about until he fell backwards into Ferb's arms. "I think we found the self-destruct button!" Ferb shouted over the groaning machine.

"Nice to see Dad hasn't lost his touch, then," Vanessa teased. "You still land right on the spot!"

Doofenshmirtz pulled himself away from the machine and shook some sense into his head. "Hardee har har," he replied sarcastically. The machine gave another jolt, nearly sending him to the ground.

Ferb grabbed Phineas' arm. "That's it; we're out of here!" he said. "Vanessa, grab Phineas' coat and let's leave! Perry, you…" He paused before shrugging and dashing off. "Uh, you grab the doctor, I guess."

Perry rolled his eyes and looked at his enemy over his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow. Doof stared back until he groaned and ran for the exit. "Fine, if you _insist_ on rescuing me," he muttered.

Once outside the building, they ran as fast as they could to where Perry had parked the hoverer. Doof and Perry had hardly stepped out of the warehouse when the machine within it exploded and sent hundreds of pieces of debris flying into the air.

Phineas, Ferb and Vanessa shielded their heads as wood and metal fell all around them.

"Oh, hey, whadaya know?" Doof announced impressively. "This is the first time I don't get harmed in anyway by my creation or—!"

Perry took the opportunity to jump up into the air and sink his fist into Doofenshmirtz' nose. The man cried out in pain before placing his hands over his face and messaging his nose. "Uuugh," he groaned. "Curse you, Perry the Platypus."

Phineas giggled soundlessly behind his hand while Ferb rolled his eyes in amusement. "I hope you learned your lesson, Dad," Vanessa said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah; don't go kidnapping red-headed teenager geniuses if they've got a pet platypus who can give a mean punch," her father replied. When Perry stepped on his foot next, the man yelped in pain and tried swatting the animal aside. "Curse you _twice!_ Now vamoose, you pest! I got the picture, sheesh!"

Perry ran over to where his owners were and climbed up Phineas' body until he was sitting on his shoulder. Making sure the boy was not harmed, he rubbed Phineas' head and then pointed at his watch while looking at Ferb.

Ferb widened his eyes and gasped. "It's twenty-five to seven already?" he said. "We're missing the banquet! If we don't leave now, we're going to be late for the performance!"

"Then we'd better head off," Vanessa replied as they climbed into the hoverer.

Doof crossed his arms. "And what about your own father, hm?" he asked.

Perry frowned at him just as Phineas stuck out his tongue. Vanessa smiled shrewdly as the transportation rose into the air. "You got here yourself; you can figure out how to get home," she replied. After one final wave, Perry turned the hoverer completely around and was off.

Doofenshmirtz watched them leave before groaning and walking off to find his car. "Memo to self: next time daughter decides to get a boyfriend, make sure he does not have any kind of pet… and make sure he's as dumb as a post."


	20. Chapter 20

__Candace looked at the clock hanging over the exit in the hall over the Danville arena. It was five after seven. Dinner had come and gone; food was still out in case people wished to eat; there were trays of desert and a giant cake that the school's head chef decided to make for the event. High school students were dancing around on the floor in front of the empty stage to music the DJ was playing. Parents and teachers remained seated at the tables in the back and attempted to converse over the happy shouts and cheers of the student body.

Candace moaned softly and tapped her foot beneath the red dress she had chosen to wear. Her hair was down and curled, but at the moment she did not even care if some makeup was out of place. The reason the DJ was still playing was because the band that was scheduled to play was missing two singers.

Phineas and Ferb were still absent.

When Linda and Lawrence arrived with the instruments, they mentioned to their daughter that Ferb had gone to some place Phineas wanted to show before coming here. They had taken Vanessa along with them.

But again, Candace knew her brothers too well for that. Phineas would never announce something like that last minute. Even Ferb had difficulty lying to their parents, even though he was able to do so much easier than Phineas could.

Whatever they were doing involved much more than taking the "scenic route" to the arena.

Candace groaned and crossed her arms, just as the DJ's music ended. Jeremy, who had been sitting with Lawrence and Linda, noticed his fiancée's anxious look. Discretely, he got out of his seat and walked over to the fretting woman. "Uh, Candace, are you alright?" he asked quietly in her ear.

"No!" Candace replied almost immediately after he had spoken. "No, I am not alright! Where are Phineas and Ferb? They're _never_ late for these kinds of things. Especially if it involves music!"

The students turned towards the empty stage after a few moments of curious mutters. When the DJ announced that he had nothing new to play for the moment, a boy raised his fist in the air. "Phi-ne-as and Ferb! Phi-ne-as and Ferb!" he chanted loudly. Eventually, he had the entire school shouting out the inventors' names in unison. Some even began to stomp.

Candace covered her mouth. "They're gonna start a riot if this keeps up," she muttered. "Isabella already came to see me, asking where the boys were, but I told her that I had no idea—!"

"Candace!" When the girl looked up, her mother was walking towards her. "Candace, where are your brothers? Did you see them come in with Vanessa yet?"

Candace bit her lip. "Uuuuhhh, not yet, Mom," she said nervously.

"Did they call you on your cell?"

"No."

"What's taking them so long, then?" Linda frowned and looked at the student body, cheering for her sons. "I told Ferb that they had to be back before they perform in order to have a bite to eat, but it doesn't even look like they'll have time for that. They'll have to take a break halfway through the performance, though; you know Phineas' stomach acts up sometimes—!"

"Mom, you make it sound like he's got some kind of disorder," Candace argued. "His stomach only acts up if he forces too much foreign food down."

"Fine, but he and Ferb still need to have a bite to eat! I don't want them fainting halfway through the show…"

Candace moaned and covered her eyes. "Trust me, Mom, that is the _least_ of your concerns," she muttered under her breath. Tapping her foot again, she looked at the students on the dance floor, shaking their fists in the air. Boys stomped and girls cheered. Buford stuck his head out from behind the black curtains but quickly disappeared behind it again. Baljeet appeared afterwards, staring at the entrance, before slipping back out of view as well.

Candace hugged her waste. "Come on, Ferb, where _are_ you guys?" she whimpered.

"Right here!"

The sound of her brother's voice not only caused Candace to turn, but also Linda and Jeremy. Bursting into the hall was Ferb, followed closely by Phineas and Vanessa. Tucked under one of his arms was the Vocal Box.

"Well!" Linda said as her sons stopped nearby. "It's about time! Where have you two been?"

Phineas shrugged in reply. "Uh, like I said," Ferb replied nervously. "We took the scenic route. But we're here now."

"Then you'd better get going," Jeremy warned. "I don't think your school's going to wait any longer."

Ferb hardly let him finish before he grabbed Phineas by the arm and hastily made his way through the tables and crowds. Candace watched him leave until they had disappeared behind the stage. Once they had, she leaned over to Vanessa as the woman removed her jacket. "What the heck happened?" the red-head demanded to know.

Vanessa placed her jacket on a chair. "Family issues," she whispered in reply.

"What does that mean?"

"I can't really explain, Candace. Let's just say that my father has a bit of a grudge against child geniuses."

"You mean Phineas and Ferb? Are they alright?"

"They're fine, don't worry."

Candace looked to the stage again just as Baljeet dashed out and whispered something in the DJ's ear. "What about Phineas' voice?" she asked worriedly. "Did Ferb figure out how to make it come back?"

Vanessa looked at her just as worriedly. "I don't know," she replied. "He _said_ he knew what to do, but he didn't tell me what it was. Phineas was still mute when I came over."

Candace moaned softly and pulled herself away from her friend. "Come on, Ferb," she muttered.

* * *

Buford drummed his sticks against the table on which the microphone controls were. Like the other students, he, Isabella and Baljeet were dressed formally. He was currently wearing a buttoned dark gray shirt with black pants, thought he had removed his tie in order to play the drums without getting it caught in his movements. Baljeet was wearing a blue dress shirt, of course, and Isabella had a pink top with a black skirt that trailed down to her knees. Her hair was down and slightly wavy, and she had put makeup on, which was not something she did on a daily basis.

Buford continued to tiredly play with his sticks until he could no longer take it. With a loud groan, he turned around and frowned at Isabella. "This is insane!" he complained. "How is it that the two guys who _started_ the dang group are late? Does this mean that Ferb never figured out how to get Phineas' voice back or something? Does _that_ mean we're _screwed?"_

Isabella sat with her pink guitar in her lap, worrying about the same thing Baljeet and Buford were concerned of. "I don't know, Buford," she said. "It was weird when they didn't show up with their parents, but now it's passed show time and people are getting impatient." She looked at Baljeet. "Maybe something's wrong—!"

"Nothing's wrong!" Ferb exclaimed, just as he and Phineas ran behind the stage. "We're both here, alive and well!"

Isabella, Baljeet and Buford looked up the moment he spoke. "Finally!" Buford exclaimed. "Where the heck have you two been?"

While Phineas removed his jacket, Ferb set the Vocal Box down beside the microphone controls. "We got a little laid back with something, that's all," the green-haired sixteen-year-old replied hastily. "Nothing to worry about."

"Have you figured out how to make Dinner Bell yap again?"

"… Where are our instruments?"

"Over there, on their stands… But can he sing now?"

Ferb tossed off his coat and ran over to grab Phineas' red electric guitar and his dark blue bass. "Yes and no," he answered while running back to his brother.

Isabella, Baljeet and Buford looked at him in horror. "You did not?" Baljeet said worriedly. "But then, how are we supposed to go up on stage? We cannot perform without our lead singer!"

"What I meant by 'no,' is that Phineas cannot speak yet," Ferb replied, while hastily connecting the Vocal Box to the microphone controls. "… blue is for Phin's mic…" he muttered to himself. "… hook it up there, adjust the sound recording… loudness… 100%..." He looked up at his friends again. "When I said 'yes'," he continued, "… I meant that I've figured out how to fix it."

This time, even Phineas stared at him in relief and curiosity. "You did?" Baljeet said. "Then how?"

Ferb pointed at the stage. "Go tell the DJ that we're going to perform," he instructed. "Go on." He watched Baljeet obediently rush off before looking at his brother. He held up Phineas' guitar and placed the strap over his brother's neck and shoulder. "Okay, Phineas, here's what you're going to do: you'll get up on that stage and _start singing."_

Phineas' eyes went wide with shock.

"Ferb, are you _insane?"_ Isabella exclaimed. "He doesn't have his voice yet! He'll completely humiliate himself up there!"

"Are you _sure_ you fixed it?" Buford argued, just as Baljeet returned and the DJ began announcing their performance.

Ferb ignored the others and placed his hands on Phineas' shoulders. "You will _go _up there and sing," he repeated firmly. "And you will do it without any hesitation, is that clear?"

Phineas' eyes filled with immense anxiety. Vigorously, he shook his head in disagreement.

Ferb opened his mouth to speak, but just at that moment, the DJ finished announcing them and the crowds began to cheer madly. He had no time to explain his plan to his brother now. He had to just trust his instinct. "We don't have time for this, Phineas," Ferb said hastily. He turned Phineas around on his feet and pushed him quickly towards the stairs. "You are going to go up on that stage, and just like we rehearsed, _you will SING!"_

And he shoved Phineas forward with all his might onto the stage.


	21. Chapter 21

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** When Phineas starts to play his guitar guys, open this page up in another window to listen to the song: .com/watch?v=R3O7e-WpGTo _

* * *

The crowds went wild when Phineas stumbled into view with his red guitar. Girls cheered his name and boys whistled and waved. Even the teachers clapped.

But Candace noticed the immense anxiety on her brother's face as he nervously walked up to the lead microphone. Phineas swallowed with great difficulty and bit down on his bottom lip as Ferb and the others walked onto the stage with their instruments.

Jeremy leaned towards his fiancée. "Is Phineas alright?" he wondered. "He looks a little on the nervous side. I didn't think he was stage fright."

"That's because he's not, Jeremy," Candace replied.

"Then, why does he look like he's going to go freak out?"

Candace did not reply to this. She simply looked at Vanessa and noticed that she too, seemed just as worried as Candace was.

"Ferb, if you have a plan, you'd better not screw it up now," Candace muttered behind her hand.

* * *

Phineas had never thought to find himself with stage fright before. He had always enjoyed performing in front of people while managing to keep his head. He relished the idea of entertaining others through music.

But there he was, standing at the front of the stage, trying to keep his legs from shaking.

His heart beat in his ears as he looked over at Ferb, who was getting into position in front of the microphone to Phineas' right. A few feet behind Ferb and a little more to the right was Baljeet, installing himself and his own electric guitar by his keyboard and moving the microphone over to stand in front of it. When Phineas turned his head, he saw Isabella standing in front of her microphone to his left and a few feet behind the lead singer. She had discarded of her pink acoustic guitar and was now holding nothing more than a tambourine. Right behind Phineas and Ferb, at the back of the stage, was the drum kit, and Buford had just sat down on the stool, waiting for the cue to begin.

Phineas looked at the crowd next for a moment or two before staring at Ferb with wide eyes, just as his brother looked up at him. As discretely as he could, Phineas shook his head.

Ferb frowned and nodded his. "Just start playing and singing!" he shouted over the crowd.

Phineas shook his head again.

"Do it!"

Phineas did not want to start another argument with his brother on stage, and so he turned and faced the microphone before him. Attempting once more to tame his limbs, he looked at the back of the hall where his sister was standing with the others.

Candace bit her lip for a moment or two but smiled wryly and nodded her head while placing her hands together.

Phineas stared at her silently before looking at Buford over his shoulder. The drummer nodded firmly and held his sticks at the ready. Phineas straightened his back out and looked down at his guitar. Taking a deep breath, he shut his eyes tightly and began playing the first song on their list. Ferb and Buford immediately played along with him while Isabella and Baljeet waited for the first verse to be sung.

Phineas felt his chest tighten, but he did as Ferb instructed him to and, eyes still closed, he opened his mouth and attempted to sing:

_Out of all the reindeer_

_You know you're the mastermind!_

His eyes opened wide in shock when audible vocals emanated from his mouth. He stared at the crowd in surprise as they cheered louder, before turning his head and shooting a curious yet bewildered look at his stepbrother.

Ferb was smiling cleverly in return while strumming his bass guitar, one eyebrow raised, creating a look that said, "I told you so!"

_Run, run, Rudolph_

_Randolph ain't too far behind!_

Phinneas continued to stare in amazement at his brother while he sung; then, little by little, a smile crept over his lips. He looked up at his family in the back of the hall, and already, Candace was jumping up and down and cheering along with his mother and Vanessa.

Phineas bared his teeth before he, Ferb, Baljeet and Isabella leaned towards their microphones and continued to sing:

_Run, run, Rudolph Santa's gotta make it to town_

_Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down_

_Run, run, Rudolph, 'cause I'm reelin' like a Merry-go-round_

_Said Santa to a boy "Child, what have you been longing for?"_

"_All I want for Christmas is a rock-n-roll electric guitar"_

_And then away went Rudolph whizzin' like a shooting star_

_Run, run, Rudolph Santa's gotta make it to town_

_Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down_

_Run, run, Rudolph, 'cause I'm reelin' like a Merry-go-round_

_Ooh!_

Linda clapped her hands happily as she watched her youngest son dance around on stage with his guitar. "Oh, I can't believe it!" she said happily. "After an entire week of not speaking, he lets it all out like a star! Oh, it makes me so happy to hear his voice again!"

Candace clapped along to the beat while smiling along with Vanessa. "You and me both, Mom," she said. "You and me both."

_Said Santa to a girl "Child, what would please you most to get?"_

"_A little baby doll that can cry, sleep, drink and wet"_

_And then away went Rudolph, whizzin' like a Sabrejet_

_Run, run, Rudolph Santa's gotta make it to town_

_Santa, make him hurry, tell him he can take the freeway down_

_Run, run, Rudolph, 'cause I'm reelin' like a Merry-go-round_

Phineas raised an arm into the air, indicating that the crowds needed to sing along, which they did gladly.

_Run, run, Rudolph! Run, run, Rudolph!_

_Run, run, Rudolph! Run, run, Rudolph!_

_Run, run, Rudolph!_

_Randolph ain't too far behind!_

Phineas and Ferb strummed as hard as they could on the last note and Buford slammed his stick over the symbol. The crowd cheered loudly for their performance and whistled. Immediately, they demanded for more.

Ferb was the first to turn and dash off stage, quickly followed by the others. Phineas placed a hand around his microphone while pushing his guitar backwards over his shoulder. "Stay put, everyone! We'll be back with more in a few minutes!" With that, he turned and rushed off after the others.

Ferb had just unhooked the Vocal Box when his brother stepped off of the stage. Turning to face him, Phineas cheered as loudly as he could and leaped into his brother's arms. "Feeerrb, YOU DID IT!" he exclaimed joyfully as they others rejoiced as well. "You did it, you did it, YOU DID IIIIITTT!" Phineas pulled himself back but kept his hands on Ferb's shoulders. He smiled brightly. "You got my voice back!"

"So I did," Ferb replied, although he was unable to hide his pride this time.

"How did you do it?"

Ferb shrugged with a smile. "A minor calibration," he confessed. "I made a mistake; who knew?"

"Holy cow, _you_ made a mistake?" Buford joked, making the others laugh. "That's a first."

Isabella and Baljeet immediately threw their arms around Phineas when the red-head pulled his hands away from Ferb's shoulders. "It's so good to hear you speak again, Phineas!" Isabella said happily. "So, SO good!"

"Likewise!" Phineas replied while hugging them both as well.

"It must have been a pain for you to write constantly what you were thinking," Baljeet added as he and Isabella pulled themselves away.

"Speakin' of which, I uh, apologize for the jokes I made earlier this week," Buford admitted while rubbing the back of his neck. He smiled nervously at the red-head. "I didn't really mean it, you know. I was just goofin' off."

Phineas waved a hand before him. "It's in the past, forgive and forget," he replied. "Besides; you'll have to live with it now, anyway."

"Heh; yeah, no kidding."

Phineas opened his mouth to speak again when an excited shriek caused him and the others to jump in surprise. Candace rushed towards them, followed closely by Vanessa, and threw her arms around her youngest brother. "Oh em geeeeeeee!" she squealed loudly as Vanessa hugged the red-head as well. "I know I normally say that you're an annoying chatterbox, Phineas, but you don't know HOW happy I am to hear you right now! Say something!"

Phineas giggled. "Hi, Candace," he said.

"Yes! It's not a fluke!" Candace immediately planted a kiss on Phineas' cheek. Just as she did, Vanessa did the same with his other cheek.

Phineas laughed as the two of them planted at least three kisses each on him and pointed at himself while looking at Ferb. "Hey, Ferb!" he said. "Lookie who's getting the love, Hero!"

Ferb rolled his eyes amusingly and waved an arm through the air, making the others laugh. Candace pulled herself away and pushed back some hair as Vanessa walked over to her boyfriend and gave him a kiss. "I suppose you deserve one two, for playing that card at the last minute," the girl said as he placed an arm around her waist.

Ferb kissed her again. "Just doing my job," he replied. After a moment, he pulled his arm away from her and cleared his throat. "However, we do need to get ready for the next bit of our program," he added.

"I will go set up the stage then!" Baljeet announced excitedly before grabbing a few other instruments and dashing off.

"Ditto!" Buford added as he and Isabella followed him.

Candace watched them leave before turning and rubbing Ferb's head. "Not bad, I'll admit," she said. "You held your end of the deal, so I won't bust you this time. Though you _did_ cut it pretty close there, Ferbster."

Phineas scoffed and placed his hands on his hips. "Yeah, no _kidding,_" he muttered, making the girls laugh. "I mean you _could_ have given me a heads up that you had a plan."

"I didn't have time!" Ferb replied. "We were going up on stage! What was I supposed to do, give you a speech in less than thirty seconds?" He covered a laugh afterwards. "But you've got to admit; it was priceless seeing THE Phineas Flynn with stage fright."

"It wasn't _real_ stage fright."

"Sure. Says you."

Phienas shrugged in reply as Vanessa kissed her boyfriend once more and walked off. "When you guys take a break, come have something to eat," she suggested.

"Will do!" Phineas replied while waving. "Thanks for helping in the rescue, Vanessa!"

Candace waited for Vanessa to leave before looking at her brothers again. "Rescue?" she echoed.

Phineas opened his mouth to reply, but Ferb quickly placed a hand over it while shooting him a tedious look. "You can take a _breather,_ Phineas," he said, making their sister laugh. As Phineas shrugged innocently in reply again, Ferb removed his hand from his mouth and looked at Candace again. "It's a long story," he said.

Candace waved a hand through the air. "Good enough for me, I guess," she said while walking off.

Ferb waited a moment before opening his mouth again. "Um, thank you—!"

"Bah-ah!" Candace snapped while turning around. She frowned softly, although there was a grin on her face. Pointing at Ferb, she said. "Remember what I said? You can _thank_ me by going back to normal. That means _you_ the quiet one and _him_ the chatterbox. Starting now." She put her hand down and walked off while laughing softly. "See you on break time," she said before walking out of view.

Phineas and Ferb watched her leave silently before the green-haired teenager sighed and turned to face his brother. Phineas looked at him silently, curiosity in his dark blue eyes. His brother remained just as silent for a moment longer before taking a breath and opening his mouth. "… Phineas," Ferb began. He rubbed his arm while looking away shamefully. "I want to apologize for the things I said to you… earlier today…"

Phineas looked down at his feet.

"I didn't mean them, honest…" Ferb paused for a moment before looking at his best friend. "It… _is_ true that you tend to talk… a lot… sometimes…"

Phineas played with his hands.

"… But…" Ferb waited until Phineas was looking at him again. "Other than your personality, out of all the characteristics that make you… well, you…" He smiled. "I like that part the most."

Phineas blinked a few times before smiling back.

"And even though you can get a little irritating at times, I don't want that to change." Ferb held out his hand. "Best friends?"

Phineas rolled his eyes. "Ferb, just because I ran off, it doesn't mean that I tossed out our friendship," he said. "I'm a chatterbox; not a dummy. Yeah, what you said was pretty harsh, and it really hurt, but that's not enough for me to just toss everything we did together away." He paused here before continuing. "And if I really had done that, I wouldn't have wanted you to rescue me. I don't hold grudges, remember?" He looked at Ferb's hand for a moment. "But if it makes you feel better…" He held out his hand and grabbed Ferb's, performing their secret handshake together. After high-fiving, Phineas winked. "Best Brothers," he corrected.

Ferb smiled in reply, just as Isabella stuck her head out from the curtains. "Hey, guys!" she called. "We're just missing you two! You gonna come up and help us sing the next song, or are you gonna stand there chit-chatting?"

Phineas pulled his guitar back over his shoulder. "Coming!" he said; but just as he had taken a step, Ferb pulled him backwards by the shirt and caused him to fall into a chair nearby with a yelp. Grabbing his bass, Ferb saluted him silently and dashed onto the stage.

"Hey!" Phineas exclaimed. He rose to his feet. "That part could have changed!" He ran up to the stairs and walked on stage. "I've only been talking for barely ten minutes and you're already giving me a hard time!"

"What are brothers for?" Ferb replied, making the others laugh.

"Don't get me started on _that."_

"Welcome back, Phineas."

Phineas stuck out his tongue in reply, but immediately afterwards saluted him with a smile and walked up to his microphone. "Okay, Danville High!" he began. "Who wants to hear some _music?"_

* * *

_*******AUTHOR'S NOTE: IMPORTANT******** So this story finally comes to a close! _

_Here's the important part, guys: The next story, **THE SEER,** which is the big trilogy I've been writing, is already being posted on deviantart in its club .com. If you guys want to read that adventure, and believe me, you won't want to miss it, you'll have to go onto deviantart to read it. It's WAY too big for me to post on two websites._

_There are also one-shots of PnF that you'll want to read when you get the chance. Those I won't be posting here either._

_So, I'll see you guys in **The Seer!** or else in the adventure after that, the special **Phinbella** story! See you then!  
_


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